Iron Chef Lewis Cooks Way to Semis in Mason Dixon Tourney

Local Chef Chris Lewis will have one and a half hours to prepare an appetizer, entree and dessert to make it to the finals of the on Tuesday night.

He already has beaten out two area chefs to make it this far. Lewis, who is the executive chef at in Columbia, defeated Mark Ricker of Morsel in D.C. and Timothy Dyson of Sobo Cafe in Baltimore.

Now his sights are set on the finals.

"Ideally we want to win it," said Lewis on Monday.

In Tuesday night's semi-finals he'll be competing against R.L. Boyd, who is the chef at Mie N Yu in D.C. The competition starts at 6 p.m. at Blob's Park in Jessup.

The chefs will be required to use veal in their appetizer and entree, but can choose their own desserts.

"We know what we're going to cook," said Lewis, "but we haven't practiced it yet because we're so busy" at Iron Bridge.

Lewis said he'll be making a vitello tonnato appetizer (cold, sliced veal with a tuna caper anchovie sauce) and a veal hanger steak entree (veal hanger with local corn, sunnyside up quail eggs, parmesean grits and roasted marrow as a butter). Dessert will be local figs from Columbia carmelized and served with a ginger snap cookie, sauvignon sauce and orange marmalade, according to Lewis.

Lewis said he and his sous chefs, Lee Marziale and Brian Boessel, will pratice the dishes once on Tuesday morning and then the second time making them will be at the competition.

"[Tuesday] will be the first time we tasted the dishes," said Lewis.

For the past three weeks, Iron Bridge has been offering up a "Chef's Whim" tasting menu on Tuesday evenings. Lewis described the dinner as local food, cooked from the heart. But this Tuesday, "Chef's Whim" will have to be put on hold while he competes.

"This Tuesday," said Lewis, "No whim, come see us battle."

Tickets for the event are $35 for general admission and $55 for judge's admission, which enables an audience member to try and judge each of the chef's creations.

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