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On Saturday night, six chefs faced off at State Theatre during the Starkville Area Arts Council’s annual fundraiser, Forks and Corks. And with all the food offerings and a ‘90s theme, it was “all that and a bag of chips.”
In years past, Forks and Corks has been a more formal event. But this year, the arts council leaned into a more casual come-and-go style event, with a silent auction and a costume contest. The event also moved from its past location at The Mill at MSU to State Theatre.
The six restaurants competing, including Big E’s Dinner Club, Central Station Grill, Walk Ons, Coffee Depot, Harveys and Proof Bakery, all had stations set up right in front of the old theater’s stage. Judges Micah Graves, Bobbi Burgess, and a surprise judge from the crowd, Ann Clifton, sat on the stage, deciding which restaurant would come out on top.
The competition was fierce. From appetizers to small-plate entrees to desserts, each chef was serving up their absolute best. And suddenly, I realized that I may have been missing out on some of the best flavors the city has to offer.
Over at the Big E’s Dinner Club station, manager Matt Davis was serving up plates of creole pimento cheese topped with bacon jam on naan chips, made by Chef Luke Sellers. The restaurant was a new competitor at Forks and Corks, mostly because the restaurant just opened earlier this summer. The dish they served seemed so creative and different from anything else I’ve had in the city.
At the next station, Central Station Grill’s Chef Leon Jefferson was serving up prosciutto wrapped halibut with roasted fig honey mustard on a pistachio corn cake. The delicate piece of fish was truly beautiful, wrapped up by the prosciutto and bathing in its sauce.
Further around the circle, the flavors got even more savory, as Chef Jonathan Fondren with Walk Ons was cooking up blackened gulf shrimp over dirty rice and smoked collard greens with garlic oil. While Walk Ons is known for its bar food and cajun cuisine, I was thoroughly impressed by how much flavor was packed onto that plate.
Just a few steps over, Coffee Depot’s Kat Egger had made lemon sugar cookies, snickerdoodle cookies and banana pudding. And I might be biased toward fruity desserts, generally, but that banana pudding made me wonder why I haven’t made banana pudding yet this summer.
On my second to last stop, I tried Harveys Starkville’s dish which was listed as being made by Chef Eric Stewart and was being served by Executive Chef Kentrell Childs. This was a steak and cheese hot pocket with housemade chips and a banoffee dixie cup dessert. The pastry looked light and flaky, and it was topped with a drizzle of sauce that elevated it beyond what you think of when you hear “hot pocket.”
Finally, at the last stop, we had Proof Bakery and Chef T.J. Manna’s three tiered chocolate cake with vanilla bean pastry cream filling and swiss meringue buttercream. That buttercream looked impossibly light and fluffy.
All the competitors put up a truly delicious fight, and opened my eyes to some of the options for food in the city that I hadn’t tried before. It’s hard to say who truly won, with all the wonderful scents and flavors that were in that room Saturday night.
For the judges’ picks, Walk Ons took home the taste category. Central Station Grill took home both presentation and originality, and Harveys won the sweets category. For the People’s Choice awards, Central Station Grill took home first place, while Walk Ons took second and Big E’s took third.
If we’re going to be honest, I think it was probably the arts council’s art education programs that won, since the event had a really excellent turnout. Still, I know which of those six restaurants I’m going to be visiting first. My mouth is already watering.
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