Miami Beach, FL – October 23, 2015 – Friday night hosted the 2nd Annual Chef Showdown, the chef competition evening of the South Beach Seafood Festival week. Over 800 people attended this sold out event and participated in an unforgettable evening while they sipped, sampled, voted, and experienced on stage live battles between Miami and Miami Beach’s top chefs. Guests entered the Land Rover North & South Dade Hospitality Village for a VIP evening of good food, good drinks, good battles, and great times. At check in, guests received poker chips so as they went around to each battle tent, they sampled the restaurants in each battle and voted on their favorites in each showdown. Throughout the evening, the battle contests made their way to the live stage in the 5,000 sq ft GOYA Culinary Pavilion for their battle demos to   showcase how they make their dishes to the guests.Celebrity Chef, Chef Ralph Pagano, EMCEE’d each of the battles and at the end, an expert “cutting board” panel of judges assisted guests in making their decision on who would win each battle. The panel consisted of Chef Fernando Desa of GOYA Foods, Joy Taylor of The Zaslow & Joy show on The Ticket, NBC6’s Kelly Blanco, and Chef Phillippe of Le Cordon Bleu. The 2015 theme was a “Fight Night” as our GOYA girls assisting in announcing each battle and our chefs took off their boxing gloves and   sharpened their knives as things got a little heated on the main stage in SoBe. Showdown competitions included   Coyo versus Bodega in Battle Taco, and Red, the Steakhouse versus Smith & Wollensky in Battle Surf & Turf, Poseidon versus Alter in Battle Octopus, CIBO versus Mondrian South Beach in Battle Shrimp, and Oceanaire versus Drunken Dragon in Battle Tuna and the winners were Chef Bernie Matz of Bodega, Chef Peter Vauthy of Red, the Steakhouse, Chef Brad Kilgore of Alter, Chef Dustin Atoigue of Mondrian South Beach, and Chef Xavier Torres of Drunken Dragon. Additionally, the event featured a FULL Sustainable Seafood showcase from hosting sponsors at Whole Foods Market, a wine pairing experience from title sponsors, Hess Collection, paired with japanese cuisine from the new SOHO Bay on South Beach, oyster girls showcasing oysters from Midtown Oyster Bar, full open bar sponsored by Bacardi and Heineken Light, dj, dancing, raffles, auctions, and so much more. Guests ate, drink, and danced, courtesy of DJ Michelle Pooch, into the evening for a night to be remembered.