When the flying dashi packets landed and the 10-minute time clock hit zero on the final round of the 2024 Capital Food Fight, DC Central Kitchen CEO Mike Curtin awarded the winning belt to Colada Shop’s Executive Chef Jovana Urriola. The award-winning chef edged out Michelin-starred Chef Yuan Tang of Rooster & Owl with a dashi curry dish inspired by her grandmother.
The biggest winner of the night, however, was our community! Thanks to the support of this year’s generous sponsors, the more than 80 restaurants serving delectable bites all night, and the 1,200 guests who joined us at The Anthem on Thursday night, we raised more than $900,000 for DC Central Kitchen programming!
Between battles, we recognized a recent graduate of our Culinary Job Training program, Angel Mitchell, who is the 2024 Marianne Ali North Star Scholarship Award recipient in recognition of her professional growth. We also released an all-new video illustrating the impact our work is having in the community 365 days a year!
Special thanks go out to a number of #HungerFighters including:
Our outstanding sponsors, including our Presenting Sponsors Instacart and Lineage Foundation For Good; Showcase Sponsor CoBank; our Pantry Sponsor, Wegmans, along with Secret Ingredient Sponsors Keany Produce, B&W, Cuisine Solutions, AUI Fine Foods, and Guest Services; Executive Chef Sponsors such as Bloomberg Philanthropies and Clark Construction; our Media Sponsor Eater; and so many more
We wouldn’t be able to pull off the spectacular stage show without the generous support of The Webster Group, CPR Multimedia Solutions, Relish Catering, ABW, and The Anthem. Not to mention our exuberant, talented hosts Carla Hall and Spike Mendelsohn, emcee Tommy McFly, and our amazing panel of celebrity judges including Sara Bradley, Rocco DiSpirito, Ris Lacoste, Kwame Onwuachi, Andrew Zimmern, and Ryan Zimmerman.
All our battling chefs, and their sous chefs, brought their A-games to the Capital Food Fight kitchens! Joining Chef Jova was Chef Tracy Eustaquio. Chef Yuan worked with Chef Tori Pajak. Eastern Point Collective’s Katarina Petonito teamed up with Chef Keri Ellen Wieczorek and Shilling Canning Company’s Sarah Ravitz partnered with Chef Andre Machado. Each presented amazing dishes in the early rounds featuring surprise ingredients: Berkshire pork belly and red watercress.
And of course, thank you to our incredible restaurant partners who showcased their talents with the best culinary offerings of any event in our history. Lastly, we are so grateful to the guests and volunteers who came out to help make this year’s Capital Food Fight the baddest and best one yet!
Mark your calendars now for Thursday, November 6, 2025, when we get to do it all again! In the meantime, we hope you’ll support our dozens of participating restaurants and come see us at the Klein Center for a volunteer shift or when you grab a freshly brewed cup of coffee at one of our social enterprise cafes.