COOKING FOR A CAUSE
Von Elrod’s Beer Garden & Sausage House has taken home not one, but two awards during this year’s Music City Chef Throwdown. The fourth-annual competition took place on June 14th, 2018—hosted in support of the Martha O’Bryan Center—presented the Germantown eatery with both the People’s Choice Award and the Judges Choice Award.
The timed competition required participating chefs to create a dish using a pre-determined list of low-cost, widely available ingredients—plus one ingredient of their choice. Each dish was then evaluated for creativity, presentation, taste and affordability
Von Elrod’s, which was represented by Duane Loftus, Lucas Flemming and Joel Lain, wowed the judges and the crowd with a ground beef sausage that was filled with spinach and mushrooms, rolled, smoked, sliced and served on top of potato puree and garnished with a sorghum glaze and crispy onions.
“There’s something really exciting about having the opportunity to compete against a group of chefs that you know and admire, especially when it’s for a good cause,” said Loftus. “This was an event that we thoroughly enjoyed participating in and winning a couple of awards in the process was just the cherry on top.”
A RACE AGAINST TIME AND TALENT
This year’s event saw participation from some of Nashville’s most popular restaurants, including Sinema, The Grilled Cheeserie, Saint Anejo, Butcher & Bee, Funk Seoul Brother, Hattie B’s and The 404 Kitchen.
The judges panel included local chef and owner of Etc. and Etch restaurants, Deb Paquette, Nashville’s Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, Ashford Hughes, Sr., and Winner of Season 7’s “The Voice,” Craig Wayne Boyd. This year’s head judge was author of “Southern Foodie” and local food writer, Chris Chamberlain.