2008 Manatee Festival of the Arts
Culinary Arts Venue
and Competition
 
NOTICE!

Due to the inclement weather during the Festival Weekend, the Culinary Arts Competition was postponed. The Festival Culinary Committee, Judges and Schools are working together to develop a "Rain Delay" venue, date and time for the Competition. Please check often with this website for updates! We appreciate everyone's patience & support.

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For the first time the 2006 Apollo Beach Manatee Arts Festival included the Culinary Arts by featuring a lively Culinary Arts Competition. Now for 2008 the Culinary Arts will be bigger and better! This year we're featuring:

   A live demonstration by chefs from Winn Dixie
   Live demonstrations by chefs from Ruth Chris Steakhouse in Tampa, Circles Restaurant in Apollo Beach, Little Harbor in Ruskin, Uncle Kenny's BBQ and Jay Minzer, personal chef.
   A live demo by Hillsborough Community College's culinary arts group
   Wine tastings on Saturday and Sunday by WineStyles and PRP Wines
   Demonstrations and advice on senior nutrition from South Bay Hospital
   A live demo on latchkey culinary by students

And back once again, our famous...

Culinary Arts Competition

This year's Competition, sponsored by Mosaic, will feature teams of culinary arts students from East Bay High School, Riverview High School and Sickles High School.  All 3 are excellent culinary programs with teams who are ready to cook before the crowd!  Riverview, the defending and inaugural champion from our 2006 Competition (with South City Career Center). They attempted to defend their title with Sickles High School, which netted a tie in the 2007 competition, therefore awarding each team with equal prizes. The 2008 competition will explode with 3 high schools competing for the title.

These teams will be traveling to Apollo Beach to prepare their menus. At 11:00 on Saturday each team will be given a boneless pork loin and begin their prep. At Noon, the Competition Begins!  They'll then have one hour to prepare a family-friendly meal that's nutritious, imaginary, and of course delicious.  The results will be evaluated by our panel of professional judges which includes Larry Cotton of "Larry's Good Eats", seen on WFLA-TV.  Cash prizes will go to the winner of the Competition based on the judges' results.  There'll also be a separate Peoples' Choice award given by attendees chosen from the Festival crowds!  This is an exciting time for the students and everyone watching them work.

Culinary events are scheduled through the day including samplings of delicious food from local notable restaurants, throughout both days throughout the Festival.  Come out to see our Culinary venue and of course our exciting Competition on Saturday!

Click  for a schedule of Culinary events.

Click to see our Award Winning Video of the

2007 Culinary Competition Award Winners

 2006 Culinary Competition Award Winners

Riverview High School Receiving Their Awards	South County Career Center Receiving Their Award

The 2008 Culinary Arts Committee assembled all Culinary activities at the festival including our Culinary Arts Competition.  The committee members were Joanne Gadek, Crystal Russell, Lynn Conlan, and Kevin Conlan.The Festival's Culinary venue would not be possible without the generous sponsorship of Mosaic.