Booths from more than 60 restaurants lined Gay Street in West Chester during the 31st Annual Restaurant Festival. Visitors sampled everything from deep-fried lobster mac and cheese bites to chicken cheesesteak wontons. We asked visitors to select their favorite appetizer, entree and dessert.
With hundreds of taste-testers reporting back to the Dish team via text message, the votes are now in for this year’s WC Dish Choice Awards.
While Olive Branch’s petite figs swept the best appetizer category, Straughten’s Catering’s deep-fried lobster mac and cheese was memorable in many voters’ hearts, as were the lobster rolls from Gadaleto’s Seafood.
Gadaleto’s won in two categories, tying for first place as Chester County’s Best Entree for their crab cakes, along with the shredded chicken taco by Mas. Ram’s Head’s filet mignon cheesesteak rounded out the third place slot for the best main courses.
What we found sweetest was the response we received for the tastiest desserts — the most votes of the bunch.
Olive Branch took first place for their velvetini. Of course, we can’t forget about the runners-up: Triple Fresh’s chocolate mousse will forever make our mouths water, and the Better Batter ice cream from Maggie Moo’s is one of the better creamy concoctions.
In addition to the WC Dish Choice Awards, the Culinary Cook-Off made a comeback, this time with the contenders battling over three rounds in order to be crowned the “Best Chef of Chester County.”
The tasty combat spotlighted four notable-and-local kitchen creators, including Side Bar’s chef Blaise Labik, Amani’s chef Jonathan Amann, Silverspoon Cafe and Catering’s chef Scott Bailey, and The Blue Pear at the Dilworthtown Inn’s chef Paul Brown. They all concocted an appetizer (in 20 minutes), an entree (30 minutes) and a dessert (20 minutes) that were judged by three local food enthusiasts and writers.
Chef Jonanthan Amann swept round one and two with his appetizer of fried wontons stuffed with pan-seared foie gras, Chanterelle mushrooms, and Blue Foot mushrooms; and his entree of seared halibut with pumpkin butter and hazelnut crust. He nailed the overall win.
Chef Blaise Labik’s darling dessert of goat cheese-stuffed French toast won him the last course’s winning ticket, nabbing him the first runner-up spot, tied with chef Paul Brown, with chef Scott Bailey picking up the end, with his skilled upscale selections.
