If you were able to catch the Chicago RedEye paper yesterday, yours truly was featured on the inside cover as one of the "cheftestants" for Chicago Tribune/Chicago RedEye's "Virtual Kitchen Stadium" Iron Chef-style competition.
The competition started yesterday morning and the secret ingredient was revealed - cherries. The cheftestants were required to come up a creative dish/submission for the competition by 8pm last night. With all the submissions in, the public has the chance to vote for their favorite. The ultimate decision of who moves into the next round falls on Chef Rick Bayless, who will be judging the submissions based on creativity, explanation of the dish and presentation.
If any of the cheftestants are eliminated by Chef Bayless, they have the opportunity of being "saved" by the public and return to the final round of competition as a wildcard based on the popularity vote.
If you would like to cast your vote for the best representation of cherry in a dish, you can leave a comment on the Chicago RedEye blog with your thoughts on the submissions.
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/redeye/ ... plate.html