DIAMOND CHEF ARKANSAS: RECUT

King of the kitchen

Ferneau wins, guests test skills in event’s new location

Donnie Ferneau, chef at The 1836 Club, was named Diamond Chef Arkansas 2016 at the annual competition hosted by the Pulaski Tech College Foundation on April 21. The cooking competition and fundraiser was renamed Diamond Chef Arkansas: Recut to highlight this year's format changes and the move to Pulaski Technical College Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute.

Modeled on the television show Iron Chef, this year's competition did away with the preliminary and had six chefs competing head to head to be one of two in the finale. The other chefs were Bonner Cameron, Phillipe Ducrot, Jason Knapp, Angela Nix and Justin Patterson. The matchup in the finale was between Ferneau and Knapp.

The foundation took full advantage of the new venue, spreading out on both floors of the institute and into classrooms where guests could watch plating and knife skills demonstrations, participate in fitted sheet folding and towel origami contests and enjoy micro-brewed beer made on campus.

Instead of a seated dinner, themed stations (Cuisines of the South, the World of Confectioneries, The Foundation of French and Latin Fusion) offered hors d'oeuvres prepared by the school's culinary students and faculty with wine pairings appropriate to each theme. Specialty cocktails, one in honor of each chef, were offered in the college's mixology lab -- for instance, Patterson's cocktail was The Arkasian and Ducrot's was The French Connection.

The foundation's signature fundraising event, with about 600 people attending, grossed about $100,000 according to the executive director of the Pulaski Technical College Foundation, Shannon Boshears.

Serving as event chairmen were Mimi San Pedro and Mary Ann Coleman.

High Profile on 05/01/2016

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