Fried Chicken Throwdown at ReSurfaced Oct. 17

[Robin Garr]

Fried Chicken Throwdown at ReSurfaced Oct. 17
Cooking Competition will Benefit Slow Food Bluegrass

The 2nd Annual Fried Chicken Throwdown, sponsored by Peerless Distilling Company, will be held on Saturday, Oct. 17, from noon to 5 p.m. at the new ReSurfaced lot at 10th Street and the Ohio River in downtown Louisville. This sustainability inspired culinary competition will award cash prizes of $500 to the Best Chicken, Best Side, and Best Dessert, and the winners will be selected by ballot voting amongst the attendees. Admission to the event is free, and tastes will be sold for $3 for chicken and $2 for sides and desserts. All proceeds will benefit Slow Food Bluegrass' Garden Grant Program.

Participating restaurants will include Royals Hot Chicken, Wiltshire on Market, Joella's Hot Chicken, Farm to Fork, Over the 9, Roux, Marketplace, Gilberto Gelato, and others.

The Fried Chicken Throwdown will be one of the exclusive events to take place at the new Resurfaced lot, which will be activated for 3 days only, Oct.15-17, 2015. The ReSurfaced movement is meant to illustrate the economic potential and benefit of incrementally activating currently unproductive spaces while creating a more vibrant downtown.

The Fried Chicken Throwdown is sponsored by Kentucky Peerless Distilling Company, Wiltshire, Rainbow Blossom, Trend Appliances, Bluegrass Motorsport, Woodland Farm Store, Louisville Farm to Table, Against the Grain, and Esposito Contracting.

Chefs interested in competing can visit the signup page at http://slowfoodbluegrass.org/chefs. This competition is only open to commercial chefs. Home cooks may not compete.

Sounds like fun. Gonna have some out of town guests that weekend; they'll probably get a kick out of this.

Honestly, this was probably the best festival I've ever been to in terms of food. Everything I had was really good. Favorites included:

Royals Hot Chicken, extra hot. Appropriately crunchy, with tons of heat. This bodes very well for Nashville-style hot chicken in this town. The pimento cheese grits were deliciously cheesy as well.

Over the 9 scotch egg, with a blackberry bitter sauce. This was a good combination of flavors and textures. Very satisfying.

Milkwood smoked chicken wings. Lots of good lime and sesame flavor. I was worried the miso in the bread pudding would be a gimmick, but it was great! It added a really interesting savory element.

For dessert, Wiltshire did a pumpkin empanada with marshmallow and caramel sauce. Really nice fall dessert. Wiltshire is just the best for pastries.

Anyway, this really was excellent food. We will definitely be going again next year.

I have to second Iggy. Royals Hot Chicken is the hottest of the hot chicken in town, and it was worth the three tickets for a tender to scald my insides. I also really liked the kimchee and quinoa side from Milkwood (and that miso white chocolate pretzel bread pudding was on point). Everything I had, mostly desserts, was great. The live music and the artwork just added to the sense of fun and atmosphere. Plus it was a really pretty day.