Better Late Than Never: My Thoughts on This Year's Iron Fork Event

Ok, so Iron Fork took place a little less than a week ago and I attended with good friends Paula, David, and their buddy Mike.  As Paula would say, the event is our "Fork-iversary".  I met Paula and David at the inaugural Iron Fork event in 2008 and we have been good friends ever since.  Awww...

I thought the Iron Fork event last year was fantastic and a HUGE improvement on the failure that was the 2008 event.  Unfortunately, the 2010 Iron Fork did not measure up to its predecessor.  In my opinion, it sucked.

The event this year was held at a different site which had me skeptical already.  I thought a huge reason for the success of the 2009 event was the location at the Bank of America building downtown.  It allowed plenty of room, easy access to tables, and even an outdoor area with great views of the city.  For 2010, the event was held at Grand Central, a club space that occupies an old rail terminal (or so the story goes) in a gritty section of downtown.  The venue was much smaller than the BoA building and everything felt crammed.  They did have a tented area outdoors with booths and music but the music was way too loud and you had to yell to have a conversation. 

We got there early with passes that let us in at 6pm, an hour before the main crowd was let in.  We met up with our good friend Chef John Critchley, Executive Chef at Area 31 who was defending his title as Iron Fork Champion against Jose Luis Flores, Sous Chef for De Rodriguez Cuba.  Chef Critchley joined us as we picked up a few beers and inspected the tables for some good eats.  Unfortunately, there weren't many to be found.  The only standouts for me were a mango barbecued pork offered by Chef Allen's, a tuna tartar by Gibraltar, and a short rib offered by The Grill on the Alley.  Whisk Gourmet also did a great pulled pork w/ southern slaw and cornbread and laughed when I called them out for repeating last year's dish.  Hey, if it works, it works.  Most other offerings were pretty weak.  If you wanted sushi you had about 8 freakin options.  Cupcakes?  About 5 or 6 options (at least it seemed like that many).  Indoors got crazy crowded once the majority of the rumored 1200 attendees arrived.  It was impossible to get to certain areas at that point.  The outdoor tent was basically all bar food - wings, sandwiches, and an inferior frita from El Rey de las Fritas.  Let me repeat, when it comes to fritas - El Mago es El Rey!!

It was hot as hell inside the venue too.  Some sushi restaurant passed out little fans that some appreciated.  I stayed cool with Famosa beer until they ran out at about 8:30pm, a mere 1.5 hours after the main crowd arrived.  I guess bribing the beer girl for whole bottles rather than little cups paid off in the short term but cut the supply short in the long run.  Oh well, just an excuse to have the smokin' hot chicks from Bombay Sapphire saunter over with some refreshments, one of the few highlights of the night.

The battle for the title of Iron Fork Champ finally got underway and was interesting.  Chef Allen was a pretty good MC and Chef Critchley even busted out some liquid nitrogen for a dish but the panel unfortunately chose Chef Flores as champ.  Kudos to Chef Flores.  Both chefs produced dishes that sounded very tasty.  Honestly, I would've been surprised if they picked Chef Critchley as champ two years in a row.  Just doesn't seem like they would want the same dude winning year after year.  Either way, it looked like the chefs had fun competing and both put on a good show for the crowd.

We bailed on the event after the competition.  Honestly, had it not been that my friend was competing on stage I'd have exited at 7pm, a mere hour after arriving.  There just wasn't much to see, taste, or learn about and the offerings were very weak.  Hopefully the 2011 Iron Fork is a much better event. 

No More Forkin Around - Iron Fork Miami Returns Better Than Ever

Last night, I met up with some good friends at the New Times Iron Fork event at the Bank of America building in Downtown Miami. It was the 2nd year in a row that Id decided to check out this event. Last year, was kind of a buzzkill. The event was held at the Miami Science Museum and everything was crammed. The stage for the competition was nearly impossible to get to and the event was vastly oversold so it took forever to get a taste from any of the booths. I met Paula (of Mango & Lime fame) along with her husband D at this event last year, so we teamed up again to dominate the event again this year. You can check out her blog at the link I just provided for pics since I slacked on the pic taking front.

Having the event at the Bank of America building was an AWESOME move. Limiting ticket sales also proved to be a huge win. We arrived at around 6pm and, after some awkward "we're not ready to open the ropes at 5:55pm" moments, were free to roam about and sample the various wares of the 40+ restaurants that participated in the event. Naturally, I spotted the Presidente booth outside on the deck and we made a b-line over there to get the night started. The outside deck was a huge hype. Nothing beats an outdoor event in Miami. It was there, after sucking down a cool Presidente, that I stumbled upon the Whisk Gourmet Food & Catering booth and all of its BBQ Pork awesomeness. Their sauce is the boss! Its a play on the South Carolina mustard-based BBQ that I love with enough vinegar to pack a little punch. This would be my first dish of the night and one that only one other dish would overcome.

After making our way around the various booths at the event, I was full. Many dishes were mediocre but generously portioned. Nothing was bad which is more than I can say for the event last year. The dish of the night for me was the goat bits with spicy dressing from Tap Tap. A healthy portion of goat doused with some habanero/vinegar sauce rocked my world. I couldve eaten 4 portions of this easily but I managed to keep control of myself. Another dish that I thought kicked major ass was the macaroon with duck mousse and cured duck breast offered up by Au Pied de Cochon. Im not a fan of sweet dishes but the savoriness of the duck mousse and the saltiness of the cured duck breast was a nice counterbalance to the sweetness of the macaroon. I had 2 of these puppies.

The actual Iron Fork competition was kinda cool but once again it was an afterthought. The stage was located in an awkward area where it was tough to see what was going on though it was easy to smell what was going on. In the end, Chef Critchley of Area 31 took down Giancarla Bodoni of Escopazzo and was awarded with a cruise as a prize.

Overall, I thought the Iron Fork event was a vast improvement from last years event due to the location and limited ticket sales. Everyone seemed to have a great time and every participant got great exposure. The only downfall was the band who played the event that sounded like kareoke gone wrong and the jazz band whose instruments played well but whose lame dj scratchin records made the sound awkward as hell. Hats off to New Times though for putting on a nice event that was well thought out and planned properly to allow maximum enjoyment by all.