Taste of Elegance ... Mid-Atlantic Chefs Compete for Best Pork Dish

Jerry Edwards, owner and corporate chef for Chef's Expressions Catering and Consulting, Baltimore, won the three top honors at the annual Mid-Atlantic Taste of Elegance held recently at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel in Baltimore. He won the Chef Par Excellence honor as well the People’s Choice Award and the best wine pairing award during the competition which was sponsored by the National Pork Board and the Iowa Pork Producers Association (IPPA). His expression of the "Three Little Pigs" as seen in the foto was as visually appealing as it was tasty.

The Mid-Atlantic Taste of Elegance contest brings some of the region’s best chefs together to showcase their talent using pork in creative, non-traditional ways. Ten chefs competed in the competition and more than 325 invited guests from the culinary industry and the media attended the event. 

Edwards’ winning entrée, “Three Little Pigs,” featured a Straw House (wheat berry salad garnished with miso bacon), a Stick House (smoked pork loin grilled over rosemary branches with rosemary-onion soubise), and a Brick House (brick-pressed pork belly infused with star anise). Edwards received $1,000 and entrance into the National Taste of Elegance competition, which will be held in the spring of 2010.

Trey Massey III, the private chef to the Irish ambassador to the United States, earned Premium Chef honors. Jordan Lloyd, executive chef at the Bartlett Pear Inn at Easton, Md., earned Superior Chef honors. 

Judges for this year’s event included besides myself representing Foodservice Monthly:

• Mark Salter, a Pork Checkoff Chef from Maryland’s Inn at Perry Cabin
• Bryan Voltaggio, chef/partner of Volt in Frederick, Md. and currently seen on Top Chef
• Lynn Hoot, executive director of the Maryland Pork Producers Association