Tastebuds go wild! Local food vendors compete for space at Artscape during cook-off
BALTIMORE - The Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts hosted the Great Market Cook-off Sunday at the Baltimore Farmer's Market B-side.
And this cook-off had much more than just bragging rights on the line.
This is a cooking competition among vendors.
"They look great, they taste great, so I think I've got two categories there," said Brett Dechowitz, from Waffle Baby.
More than a dozen local vendors presented their best dish for judgement.
The dishes ranged from homemade sweet treats.
"So we've got waffle marshmallow treats," Dechowitz said. "They're like rice crispies, but with homemade Belgium waffles."
To authentic Venezuelan arepas.
"It's called in Venezuela, an arepa de chicharron," said Harold Dams, from Arepi.
"The arepi is a little different," Dams said. "It has pork in the dough, so it's like pork rinds in the dough. It gives you a little bit of a quirky flavor to it."
The dishes were judged on presentation, taste and style.
And much more than bragging rights were on the line.
The winner of this cook-off earned the Golden Spatula free vendor space at Artscape.
"It literally would just put us in a different ball league as far as being a small business," said Samara Greene-Scott, from Soul Smoked BBQ.
Winning over the judges is no easy task.
"I think innovation, creativity, like, impressing the judges with something that has never been done before," Dams said.
And the folks at Arapi did just that.
Arepi took home the Golden Spatula and won free vendor space at Artscape.
