The room was silent as an eager crowd circled a covered table in the center of the grand ballroom. All eyes watched as the announcer counted down to unveil the secret ingredient: Swamp Head beer.
The Iron Chef Gainesville competition began at the Hilton University of Florida Conference Center.
Taste of Gainesville and HOME Magazine held its fourth annual fundraising event Sunday evening, where about 800 people attended.
The main attraction was a local rendition of the Food Network show “Iron Chef America,” judged by previous winners from another popular cooking show, “Chopped.”
The three competing executive chefs had one hour to prepare an appetizer, main course and dessert incorporating locally brewed Swamp Head beer into each dish. Blueberries and coffee were the secret ingredients in previous years.
Two-time defending champion Briton Dumas, executive chef at Embers Wood Grill, was up against two new contenders: Ray Leung, executive chef at Dragonfly Sushi, and Patrick Jones, executive chef at Gainesville Golf and Country Club.
“You can’t really prepare for these kind of things,” Dumas said. “I kind of create menu ideas in my head of things that I can incorporate flavors into, no matter what those flavors are.”
Once the secret ingredient was announced, the chefs met with their assistants to develop a menu and began cooking in portable kitchens set up in the middle of the ballroom. They prepared the meals with food from a fully stocked pantry in the corner of the room.
The winning entry came from Dragonfly’s head chef Leung, who concocted rice sauteed in beer, beer-glazed fish — and for dessert, beer sorbet topped with peanut brittle.
Leung, who said his favorite part of the competition was “the adrenaline rush,” attributed his success to the versatility of Asian cuisine flavors.
Dumas treated his loss light-heartedly.
“I’ve had better days in the kitchen,” he said to a laughing crowd.
Proceeds from the $100 event tickets went to Child Advocacy Center, Children’s Home Society of Florida and Tyler’s Hope for a Dystonia Cure, said event coordinator Scott Costello.
During the competition, attendees also sampled food from 33 area restaurant vendors.
