01-03-2025
Pastry chef for Twelve, Evo wins Incredible Breakfast Cook-off
Feb. 28—It's been a turbulent start to 2025 nationally, so we're glad there is one thing we can count on in our own backyard: If it's late February, then it's time for the annual Incredible Breakfast Cook-off, an 11-course extravaganza that raises money for Preble Street ($8,000 this year, according to event organizer Gillian Britt of gBritt PR).
The early morning event, which took place at Sea Dog Brewing Co. in South Portland on Friday, drew about 250 people, a sold-out crowd, who voted on their favorite items. The cook-off kicks off Maine Restaurant Week, so no surprise, the menu was definitely not your grandfather's Grape-nuts-and-bananas-bowl-of-cereal start to the day.
This year, Prentice Hospitality Group Executive Pastry Chef Georgia Macon (Twelve, Evo, The Good Table) took first place among the 11 competitors with her Danish. The elegant square-shaped laminated pastry was filled with an egg yolk, goat cheese and coffee-bacon "jam." Macon was competing under the auspices of Not a Bakery, a food truck from Prentice Hospitality that is slated to launch this spring.
Second place went to Bowdoin College chef Isaac Aldrich for an only-in-Maine breakfast item: Maine Lobster Deviled Eggs, made with brunois celery, tarragon and chives, and topped with crispy fried shallots, smoked paprika and buttered lobster. Bringing up third place was Union (at the Press Hotel in Portland) Executive Chef Christian Bassett's Brioche Bread Pudding, made from apple cider pork belly, pecan crumble and smoked hot honey. The Aldrich and Bassett breakfast items, Britt said, were just one vote apart, "neck and neck. As close as it gets."
The egg shortage clearly didn't inhibit the competing chefs, who also served up items with scrambled eggs, Hollandaise sauce, steak and eggs, and cured egg yolks.
"Everybody who attends is always very happy," Britt said of the Incredible Breakfast Cook-off. "First of all, there are 11 competitors, so it's an 11-course breakfast. I don't know how people do it, but they do. It's just a fun, casual, very satisfying breakfast that is also a fundraiser, so everybody feels good."
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