OK, so it’s not quite Ali Vs Foreman and the Rumble in the Jungle but the blog chuckled at the news that chefs from Cookie were to take on chefs from The Sisters in a cooking battle at the Farmers’ Market at Glasgow’s Queen’s Park on Saturday morning.
The brainchild of Domenico Del Priore, the co-owner of Cookie on Glasgow’s South Side, Chef Wars is normally a monthly event pitting three volunteer cooks against each other.
On Saturday, from 11am, the event will be stepping outside and Cookie’s kitchen brigade will be squaring up to The Sisters restaurant to find out who will be crowned the first ever Queen’s Park Chef Wars champion.
Mr Del Priore said: ‘Taking place at the regular Queen’s Park Farmer’s Market, this special chef wars event will see chefs from both restaurants running through the farmers’ market to choose meat and veg before crossing knives in the kitchen. Onlookers will be invited to sample the fare and choose the winning contestant.
‘We hope to make this a regular event where we demonstrate the potential of the great Scottish produce on offer at the twice monthly farmer’s market.’
Cookie has always been more than a straightforward restaurant and the Chef Wars stunt is a cute way of drawing attention to one of Cookie’s founding theories:
‘At Cookie we think markets offer an important alternative to supermarket shopping. We think the market should expand and provide a wider offering, making it not just a farmer’s market but an alternative source of food for local residents so we were really excited when we were contacted by Graham Wallace of City Markets to assist in his efforts to promote the market.”
Mr Del Priore hopes to start offering Queen’s Park farmer’s market stall holders shelf space at Cookie to allow customers access to a more regular supply of fresh produce.’
This isn’t the first time that this area of Glasgow has seen combat.
The battle of Langside was fought on Queen’s Park and surrounding areas on 13 May 1568 between the forces of Mary Queen of Scots and the Regent Moray and marked the Queen’s final defeat in Scotland.
Although it has been nearly 500 years since the area last echoed to the clash of steel on armour, this weekend’s pagger is likely to be no less hard fought.
Chef Wars featuring Cookie vs The Sisters takes place at Queen’s Park Farmer’s Market on Saturday 16th October from 10am till 1pm.
If you enjoy the food the chefs conjure up then you can try more of it at the respective restaurants. Just click on their links to see what 5pm offers they are running.