Annual Golden Basket competition carries on, with big changes, amid pandemic
The 2020 Golden Basket cooking competition kicks off next week, July 27-Aug. 2. Over the course of the competition, chefs at six local restaurants will offer a unique, limited-time menu item making use of a secret ingredient.
In previous years, the Golden Basket competition took place over the course of one day, with a panel of judges and live cooking environment à la Food Network’s “Chopped.” This year, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the competition’s format has changed considerably.
Organizer Travis Lesser, founder of farmer-focused nonprofit food hub Appalachian Food Works, the competition’s beneficiary, says the new format is “a pandemic-proof way to go about the competition.”
In June, the six participating restaurants — Elk Creek Cafe + Aleworks, Four Ways Pub & Eatery, Guante Family Restaurant, Pine Grove Hall, Revival Kitchen and Shy Bear Brewing Co. — received a list of available ingredients from which they could build their competing menu item, allowing them to plan ahead. However, when Lesser delivered each restaurant’s ingredients on Friday, he also included the curveball secret ingredient.
“This year, the secret ingredient is pepper jelly from The Piper’s Peck, a local farmers market vendor. The chefs will have to all incorporate pepper jelly (in their dishes). Having the knowledge of the other ingredients they each ordered, I think it’ll work very well in each of the dishes. It’ll be really delicious and everything looks amazing,” Lesser said.
Unlike in past Golden Basket competitions, the judging is now in the public’s hands. Over the course of next week, local diners can order the competing menu items at each of the restaurants, then go online to vote for their favorites. To vote, customers must “like” the post of their favorite dish on the Appalachian Food Works Instagram or Facebook pages. The restaurant with the most combined “likes” at the end of the competition will be named the winner.
The restaurants aren’t the only ones competing for prizes, though. Over the week, diners have a chance to win daily giveaway items donated by local businesses such as Fasta & Ravioli Co., Inglebean Coffee House, Gemelli Bakers, Koo-Weh Nana Desserts and Pastries and more. To enter to win a giveaway item, diners can either post a photo of their meal at one of the participating restaurants with the hashtag #TheGoldenBasket, or make a donation to the Appalachian Food Works GoFundMe campaign (www.gofundme.com/f/help-app-food-works-get-a-van).
Both donations to the GoFundMe page and $1 from every competing menu item ordered over the course of the competition will go to Appalachian Food Works’ goal to purchase a refrigerated van.
“We are looking to scale, but we have some limitations right now because we can’t haul that much product,” Lesser said. “In order to really, really start to see the level of revenue (needed) to make us a sustainable business, we need to scale up. ... We need the larger capacity to haul more.”
The GoFundMe campaign goal is $50,000.
Despite the initial challenges of changing The Golden Basket’s format in the midst of a pandemic, Lesser notes that the larger challenge has been, somewhat surprisingly, the weather. The competition relies on local farms for ingredients for the competing menu items, but with recent limited rain fall, Lesser says “farmers are getting nervous.”
“We’re dealing with challenges on two sides. ... On one side, we have farmers who had a great early part of the season. People weren’t really feeling like going to the supermarkets, and the farmers markets went gangbusters around here. Individual farmers were doing great, selling out of things,” Lesser said. “Now, they’re getting a little worried, because it’s getting really dry out there.”
On the other side, he says, with restaurants now facing reduced capacity restrictions, “it’s another thing they have to deal with when they’re already struggling to get by. A lot of restaurants around here have done a great job in pivoting and adjusting ... and there are others that aren’t so lucky.”
The Golden Basket competition, though, allows local diners to easily support an array of local businesses at one time — the competing restaurants, the participating farms and producers and Appalachian Food Works.
“It’s important that these restaurants receive support. We’re using this week to showcase not only our local farms, but also our restaurants trying to get through this as well. We don’t want to just have a bunch of chain restaurants here in this area. We want these restaurants to survive. They add character and so much to our community,” Lesser said.
He added: “These restaurants need your support and the fact that they’re willing to help support an organization like us, which is in turn supporting these farmers that are having a tough year — that speaks volumes as to the types of businesses these restaurants are. That, in my mind, is the biggest reason to support The Golden Basket. They need our support. We want all these restaurants to be around for a very long time. They shouldn’t have to close down because a pandemic hit.”