​The Downtown Plate Crawl: Home Cooks vs. Local Chefs

Main Street Beaufort, USA put home cooks and professional local chefs head-to-head in a tasting competition that brought vibrancy throughout downtown on a hot, rainy night in mid-August.

Organizers had three goals in mind when they created the special event: celebrate the downtown's culinary attractions, encourage people to walk through all of downtown (not just the main street) and entice people downtown during a normally slow time of year. The event exceeded all of its goals with eight downtown restaurants participating.

Home cooks submitted a dish to enter in the taste-testing challenge. After reviewing the submissions, each professional chef chose one entry to compete against. Each tasting station had two of the same dish-one prepared by the home cook, the other by a local chef. Ticketholders conducted a blind-taste test of the dishes then voted on their favorites. At the end of the evening, home cooks won five out of the eight challenges.

Downtown retailers participated in the successful event by staying open late and offering water and wine to the public. They also offered shelter from the unexpected rainstorm. The businesses appreciated the opportunity to be involved.

Contact: LaNelle Fabian at director@downtownbeaufort.com or 843.525.6644.