‘The first rule of Bite Club is…you talk about Bite Club.’
TERENCE Edwards & George Craig, the co-founders of Check On – a pop up restaurant and event catering company – are launching Bite Club in Leeds.
The duo, authors of the cookbook Feeding Friends, plan to bring the city’s best chefs together for a series of intimate cook-offs that will put diners in the judge’s seat.
For seven days, customers will have the chance to try a six-course menu at Lambert’s Yard masterminded by eight local chefs.
Each event will pit a chef against another and it’s the diners who will decide who goes through to the next round.
The idea was inspired by the Brad Pitt film Fight Club and is dubbed ‘Bite Club.’
Like a boxing match, the first round will involve a starter from each chef, for the second a main and for the third a dessert. Diners will vote on each round, and the chef who wins the most rounds will go through to the semi-finals.
“We were inspired by a mash up of the classic movie Fight Club, which we both absolutely love and a mixture of all the straight laced TV cooking shows that are dominated by chefs from Michelin Starred restaurants in crisp chef whites,” Craig told Leeds list. “We want to get a bit more underground, a lot like the movie…chefs are very competitive, so they’ll all want to be cooking at their best to impress the diners – and it’s the diners who choose the winner.”
Six local chefs have already been confirmed:
Brett Barnes from Thornback V Josh Nesbitt from Workshop. Barnes was head chef at The Reliance and The Cross Keys, worked at the Michelin-starred Star Inn in Harome, has cooked for Mark Hix’s restaurants and at the Scandanavian restaurant Favikan The latter is recognised as one of the best restaurants in the world.
Dishes will include quail, chicken skin & potato terrine with fermented apple purée, alongside a simple steak and mushroom.
John Farrar from Mr Nobody V Tommy Hunter from The Reliance: Dishes will include pork spare rib dumpling and pig trotter tea vying against beetroot fritters, goats cheese mousse, candied walnuts and watercress.
Tobias Quinn from The Cross Keys V Dan Triplethorn from Laynes Espresso will cook de-constructed rhubarb crumble and a baked banana sandwich with white chocolate and popcorn ice cream. Triplehorn has a solid British background and is Yorkshire cooking through and through.
Bite Club will take place at Lambert’s Yard every night between Sunday 27 February 2017 and Saturday 4 March 2017. Tickets are £35 a head, with a small booking fee.
For more information contact: info@checkonpresents.co.uk
