By Roy Weavers

In front of a packed audience at the 2011 Taste of Paradise Food Fight, Bistro 3 Head Chef, Evan Seaward put on a sensational performance to take the coveted title in an amazing 'cook off' Grand Final against Chef Vikas Chandra from the Sheraton Mirage.

The first two rounds each featured 4 chefs from seven of our top local restaurants.   Round One saw last years winner, Tommy Young from 2Fish up against Dominik Uhlig from Salsa, Jed Sneddon from Nautilus and Vikas Chandra from the Sheraton Mirage. 

Chandra used all 5 of his mystery box ingredients to dominate the round in the end with a score of 124 out of 150.  The three celebrity judges were particularly
impressed by his superb preparation and excellent knife skills .

The second round brought Evan Seaward from Bistro 3 together with Jarrod Silver again from Sheraton Mirage, Ricky Jordan from Bucci Ristorante and Hardy Suangin from harrisons restaurant. Seaward won the crowd over with his enthusiasm and intensity as he piled the pressure on his fellow chefs with a demonstration of confident showmanship and a level of knife skills that had the audience mesmerised.

The three judges admitted that they really had their work cut out to pick just one winner from each of the first two rounds with all the chefs illustrating why Port Douglas is blessed with so many great eateries. 

The judges comprised of Nick Holloway, owner and Head Chef at the excellent Nu Nu restaurant in Palm Cove, Lorraine Elliott who runs her own very popular food blog website entitled 'Not quite Nigella' and last by but no means least, the straight shooting Winsor Dobbin, who has been a distinguished food critic for over 30 years and has written for press and magazines all over the world.

The MC's for the evening were Supersal and Wevs from Radio Port Douglas' popular Monday night 'Theme Park Show' kept up a running commentary and banter with both the chefs, the judges and the crowd. 

The chefs basically had 40 minutes to create and cook an entree and a main dish from the fabulous array of fresh and packaged foods supplied by main sponsors Coles supermarket and Blood Orange in Warner Street.  The twist in the tail came from a 'mystery box' which each chef had to try to build in to their creation but of course they didn't know what it contained until just before the start of the round. 

Extra points were awarded for using ALL the ingredients in the mystery boxes.  Sounds easy eh?  Typically the mystery boxes included things like Macadamia nuts, unpitted Olives, Fresh Mint and Cocunut Cream but it was different for each round.  It doesn't sound so easy now does it?

But these chefs took it all in their stride and produced a selection of dishes that even had these tough judges mouths watering.

The two winning chefs were finally selected and by the sound of the crowd reaction it produced the hoped for food fight challenge between Vikas Chandra from the Sheraton Mirage and Evan Seaward from Bistro 3.  Each chef had generated his own team of cheerleaders and supporters with an almost footy, or is that 'foody', Grand Final feel to the atmosphere inside the cooking arena.  

At the end of the second round, the magnificent Carinda Christie played 'live' to entertain the crowds while the stage was changed to leave just two cooking stations.

Now if the judges thought the skill level and creativity on show in the first two rounds were excellent, they could not have foreseen how both these determined chefs were going to up their game. 

It was breathtaking the way Evan Seaward demonstrated his knife skills, in fact it was almost scary, as his sliced and diced his veggies often in mid air !  But don't think that Vikas Chandra was letting him take all the limelight.  His intensity of preparation and attention to detail was as magical as his more flambouyant opponent.  He just didn't boogie quite so well! 

Many times when the cheers went up from the crowd they seemed to be favouring the quieter Chandra but the Seaward, the Bistro 3 supremo danced and diced his way into their hearts and by the final seconds both contestants had equal billing from this boisterous bunch of foody lovers.

As throughout the qualifying rounds, the chefs and their two dishes were judged on four elements, Difficulty, Creativity, Innovation and Taste & Presentation.

After pondering for what seemed like hours, but in fact was only about 10 minutes, the judges made their final decision.  It was to be Evan Seaward who would be declared the 2011 Taste Paradise Food Fight Champion. 

The crowds went crazy, Evan danced around the ring like a world champion prize fighter holding up his framed championship trophy.  Naturally he wasn't shy of the microphone and excitedly thanked everyone from the organisers to the suppliers, the sponsors, his supporters and last but by no means least his worthy opponent, Vikas Chandra. 

Evan Seaward was a man who had come to win and had achieved his dream.

Congratulations go to a worthy winner. 

It was also brilliant to hear all the other chefs declaring that they would be back next year because they had had so much fun.  And when you think about it that's what Carnivale is all about!