When the steam cleared and the time clock hit zero on the final round of the 2023 Capital Food Fight, DC Central Kitchen CEO Mike Curtin draped the winning gloves around the neck of Estuary’s Chef de Cuisine Ria Montes for her scallop crudo dish featuring the most mysterious secret ingredient of the night: sea buckthorn puree.
The biggest win of the night, however, was our community. Thanks to the support of this year’s generous sponsors, the 75 restaurants serving delectable bites all night, and the 1,100 guests who joined us at The Anthem on Thursday night, we raised more than $760,000 for DC Central Kitchen’s hunger-fighting and job training programs!
Special thanks go out to a number of #HungerFighters including:
Our outstanding sponsors, include Instacart, Lineage Logistics, CoBank, Wegmans, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Clark Construction, RTX, VOXMedia, Keany Produce, Cuisine Solutions, AUI Fine Foods, and so many others.
Our exuberant, expert host Spike Mendelsohn and emcee Tommy McFly along with our amazing panel of celebrity judges including Tom Colicchio, Justin Sutherland, Rocco DiSpirito, Fariyal Abdullahi, and Ryan Zimmerman. Congratulations to Team Spike/Rocco/Fariyal for taking home the W during the surprise dandelion greens round!
Our battling chefs – Chef Ria, All Set Executive Chef & Owner Ed Reavis, Gravitas Chef de Cuisine Rachel Bindel, and Chef Carlos Camacho Executive Chef of dLeña – all brought their A-games to the Capital Food Fight kitchens.
And of course, our incredible restaurant partners, our North Star continuing education scholarship winner LaQuisha Abbott, our hosts at The Anthem, and our wonderful guests who helped make this the baddest and best Capital Food Fight yet!
We hope to see all of you back at The Anthem on Thursday, November 7, 2024, for our 20th anniversary of the Baddest Night of Doing Good!