Discounted Tix for 6th Annual CT Chef’s Challenge Still Available

From now until September 1, you can get your Connecticut Chef’s Challenge tix at a discounted rate. Yup, for just $60 you can pick up a ticket that would normally cost $75. Entry gets you in on the action as you watch some of CT’s best chefs compete, passed apps, dessert, and free wine and beer. Or, you could buy a VIP ticket  ($100) that gets you into the Chef’s Reception and gets you a chance at winning a seat at the Chef’s Table Tasting Seat. There are also other seating options available that get you a guaranteed seat at the Chef’s Tasting Table.

Swine + dine: [oink] brunch pop-up series @ Caseus

[oink] is heading to Caseus in New Haven. Get your tix now! Picture from their Facebook page.

[oink] is a new popup from Chefs Craig Hutchinson who worked at the award-winning Ribelle in Brookline, MA and Alex Lischynsky who worked with Craig at Radius among other great restaurants in Boston. Their focus? Real, from the ground, from the farm, sustainable and pure food done right. And, it sure doesn’t hurt that the food they are using for their events comes from CT land. They’ve been making appearances from place to place, too, most notably and recently at Black Hog Brewing for a continuing series of pop up dinners.

2015 CT Chefs Challenge Competitors and Judges Announced

We already told you to save the date, so it’s about that time to get your tickets for the 2015 CT Chefs Challenge! The competition goes down on Friday, September 18, starting at 7 pm at the Lincoln Culinary Institute in Shelton. This year you have two options for tix, too: GA for $50 which includes free beer/wine, apps, food buffet, coffee, and dessert or the Tasting Ticket for $100 which also includes a reserved seat at a shared table, and a tasting dish from the chefs for the table to share. Also included is the cocktail hour where you’ll have the chance to drink, try some apps, meet some new friends, and learn about The Optimus Foundation who are the benefactors of this incredible event.

Now, here are some of the great things to look forward to:

27 Trucks + Counting @ 2nd Annual RBS Food Truck Festival, May 22

Thou desireth roll of lobster? Quench thy famishment.

After their inaugural food truck festival last year, the Race Brook School Food Truck Festival is back and bigger than before (15 last year)! All you have to do is come by the Orange Country Fairgrounds from 4-8 on May 22 with some dinero and a massive appetite! That’s because there is a crazy amount of food trucks that will be there!  Just look at this list:

6 Ways to Support Small Business Saturday in Fairfield County

Antipasto has been proven* to elevate mood and happiness

Although the idea behind Small Business Saturday was created by American Express, the heart of it is what matters: supporting local shops, restaurants, breweries, and vineyards. This local love is what keeps CT going. In essence, you’re not only helping to support the owners, but the managers, the hosts, the servers, the brewmasters, beertenders, vinters, the cheesemongers, and the people who keep everything in tip top shape.

So, being big supporters of local business in the 203 all year round, we thought we could give you some nice ideas about how you can get out there and invest your money back into the community.

Local 9 Year Old Connecticut Girl Competes on Fox’s MasterChef Junior!

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We’ve watched every single MasterChef season since it began, but we couldn’t help ourselves when they put out the first ever MasterChef Junior last year. The premise? 16 young and talented kids compete in mystery box challenges and pressure challenges to see who will become the MasterChef. Our favorite from last year, Alexander, actually won, so it was great to see his success. What did he get? $100,000, the MasterChef trophy, and world-wide recognition . . . the same things that are up for grabs this year!

Will Drive for (Good) Food @ Firebox – Hartford, CT

When we grew up in our New York towns a 1-2 hour drive was no big deal. But, since living in Fairfield County for 10 years, 1-2 hours might as well be 20 hours for some crazy reason. Hence why we never seem to make our way up to Hartford to try Firebox, a Modern American Farm to Table restaurant people have been raving to us about for years! But, one random Saturday we had nothing going on so we figured it was about time to make our way on up . . .

The Fermenting Upward Growth of CT Beer and a Call to Action

As food bloggers here in Fairfield County, we’ve seen the food & beverage scene grow immensely since we started back in 2010. One of the biggest areas in the food and bev biz to kick some serious butt has been CT breweries! Just think, in 2011, we had just 16 breweries, in 2012 we had 21 breweries, in 2013 there were 23, and now, we have 30 in-state breweries that are open with 45 breweries slated to be open by 2015*. Doing the math on that, that’s current growth of a whopping 81.25% since 2011! And the best thing is, these breweries are not just about making beer for beer’s sake…they’re about making good beer that we can all be darn proud of! Which brings us to our point…

Not enough of the rest of the U.S. knows about all the great beers CT has to offer and it’s about time they did! Now, to be fair, some of this is due to limited distribution, although things are getting better. As example, The CT Brewers Guild has become a unifying force in putting CT beer forward as a whole with an all for one and one for all mentality. And, this past year has seen CT breweries take sizable steps into new markets like Two Roads pushing into NYC, MA, and Rhode Island, Half Full pouring out brews in Westchester County, Thomas Hooker bringing suds to MA, NJ, NY, and PA and Overshores even expanding distribution to Washington, DC.

Bistro 7 in Wilton Grand Reopening Party w/ New Chefs + Menu

Bistro 7 in Wilton competed for the first time and took home a nice new helmet this year…

Bistro 7 in Wilton invites you to their Grand Re-Opening celebration dinner on October 9 with seatings at 5:30, 7, and 8:30. Meals are $39 per person, include a cocktail from the new beverage menu created by Front of House Manager Cristian Caldarariu, and also include tastes of what’s new at Bistro 7.  

So, why exactly are they re-opening and celebrating? Well, there’s a few things going on:

1) Chef Tony Kalmanidis is leaving to start up some awesome food trucks. It’s always nice to give props where props are due.

2) Chef Marcelino Martinez is becoming the new Chef de Cuisine. He’s no stranger to Bistro 7, though, having already been a pastry chef and sous chef there.  

3) Chef Harrison Schaefer will start as the new sous chef.

4) They are revamping the menu for the season, for what’s locally available, and to jive with both new chefs. 

5) Bistro 7 continues its support of local produce and products by working with Debra Sloane of Sloane Farm and Donna Simmons of Pound Ridge Organics among others.  

Win 2 Tix to Hoptoberfest Craft Beer Fest + Wing Contest in Shelton

We’ve grown to become very picky about our hot wings. Seriously, like super picky.  We’ve had some awesome wings around the state, so we’re always keeping a mental wingopedia when we try new ones. So, we’d like to help you to add more wings to to that wingopedia in your noggin with two free tickets to Hoptoberfest Craft Beer Festival & Wing Contest! All you need to do is tell us how you like your wings here, on FB, or on Twitter using #Wingopedia. If we were entering (which we aren’t, that’d be mean if we won our own contest!), we’d say something like, “I like my wings spicy.  Like, actually spicy…not fake spicy.” The contest starts now and goes until Friday (10/3) at noon when we’ll announce the winner on our FB page and Twitter feed. 

Here are the deets for Hoptoberfest…and note that if you get your tickets online, they are still pretty affordable at only $25: