Chef Information

The Slow Food Bluegrass Fried Chicken Throwdown

October 12, 2019 12-4 PM at 3rd Turn Brewing, at 10408 Watterson Trail, Louisville, KY 40299

Thank you for your interest in participating in Slow Food Bluegrass’s return of our most popular community celebration of food… The 6th Annual Fried Chicken Throwdown!

What is The Slow Food Bluegrass Fried Chicken Throwdown?

The Fried Chicken Throwdown is a culinary competition to benefit Slow Food Bluegrass (SFB).  We are excited to be in our 6th year of this popular event! 

A cash prize will be available to the winner in each of three categories, Best Fried Chicken ($500) and Best Vegetarian Side ($250). The judging will happen by “people’s choice.” The currency of The Bluegrass Fried Chicken Throwdown will be tickets, and $1 will equal 1 ticket. For every ticket collected, SFB will reimburse the participating restaurant up to $.50, depending on the sourcing of the chicken ingredients. (More information outlined below.) 

Pricing:  TBD

Attendee voting will choose the category winners. Voting will be administered by ballot and each attendee will receive one ballot upon entry to the event. 

Set Up and what will be provided: 

  • Electricity

  • Ticket Collection Boxes

  • Menu Chalkboard

What you are responsible for providing:

Location

The event will take place at 3rd Turn Brewing, 10408 Watterson Trail, Louisville, KY 40299. Parking will be off-street. 

Preparing your dishes:

The mission of Slow Food Bluegrass is to promote good, clean, fair food.  Because of this, we encourage entrants to use sustainably sourced ingredients and highlight local food items.  Not everyone is able to eat Fried Chicken, so sides should be vegetarian. To encourage our participating restaurants to use good, clean and fair food, we’ve developed a tiered compensation system to help cover higher food costs associated with high quality, local chicken. 

Reimbursement will be as follows: 

  • $.50 per ticket redeemed for vendors who source local, sustainable chicken

  • $.40 per ticket for chefs who source free range, certified organic, or pastured poultry

  • $.35 for those using conventional chicken

This ratio will apply to all dishes that you serve, including the side and dessert.  Our default repayment will be $.35, but you can move into a higher repayment tier by showing us your invoice/receipt from your chicken purchase. 

Since this is an outdoor event, and cooking will be done outside in a portable space, we’ve learned a few things from our super successful event in past years that we’d like to share:

  • Expect to be BUSY. Make sure you can execute your dish as quickly as possible to cut down on lines.

  • Make your portion sizes a true taste/small plate. For $3, customers don’t have an expectation of an entire chicken breast, and you will be able to get more food out quickly if you can fry more food at a time.

  • Consider not using bone in cuts, or develop a recipe that uses a twice-cooked method, so that the dish can be executed quickly.

  • Consider having two fryers—propane turkey fryers will work fine. There are also commercial fryers available for rent.

What do I get out of this?

  • Publicity. We estimate an attendance of up to 1000, so this is a great opportunity to get your food in front of a lot of new mouths.

  • Up to 50% of all food sales. We understand that everyone has different recipes and different food costs. While we have determined the price for the competing samples ($2-3), you have total freedom to determine your sample portion to work within your food costs. Additionally, you may determine the prices and portions for the rest of your menu, keeping in mind the financial split with SFB. In our experience, we have found that smaller portions are better for everyone.

  • The chance to win up to $750 in cash prizes, and the glory of being named the Best Fried Chicken in the Bluegrass! Enough said.