The Got to Be NC Competition Dining Series, a single-elimination tournament highlighting the best of the state’s food, agriculture and culinary talent, has named a winning team for its local Greensboro series. Team Sedgefield Culinary Crushers made up of three chefs from Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, brought home the title. Team Sedgefield Culinary Crushers defeated Team Wiley Pickle Weasels from Greensboro in the final dinner event.

The finale challenged the chef teams to use two featured ingredients, Lady Edison hog and produce harvested from several area farms, including The Edible Schoolyard at the Greensboro Children's Museum. Team Sedgefield Culinary Crushers chefs James Patterson, Issac Spencer and Tim Alston served up the highest scoring dish of the night and won over the crowd’s stomachs with the fifth course. The mouth-watering dessert was a destructed buttermilk pie, which included Ran-Lew Dairy buttermilk mascarpone cream, Bertie County peanut and pork crackling shortbread, passion fruit gastrique, Edible Schoolyard white plums, North Carolina peaches, strawberries and mint.

“What an experience! We’ve never done anything like this before as a team and it’s very different from what we do every day, so this was a blast challenging ourselves against other culinary professionals,” said Chef Patterson. “I’m so proud of our team, the excitement was noticeable at the club in the weeks leading up to the competition, and my guys brought their “A Game” both nights. It feels amazing to be named the local champions and to move on to compete in the statewide championship this fall.”

As part of the Greensboro series winnings, the team took home $2,000 in cash and prizes, and each member received a handcrafted knife by Ironman Forge, an autographed cookbook by master French baker Lionel Vatinet of La Farm Bakery and the coveted “Red Chef Jacket” provided by ALSCO. Additionally, Team Sedgefield Culinary Crushers will move on to the Battle of Champions statewide finale in October where they will compete against other winners from across North Carolina.

“The Greensboro finale dinner battle was highly competitive with each team taking the lead at different times throughout the night, at one point with only a hundredth of a point difference in scores, ” said Jimmy Crippen, Competition Dining Series founder and host. “The energy in the kitchen was palpable with both teams hard at work creating crowd-pleasing dishes. Ultimately, Team Sedgefield Culinary Crushers stole the show with their dessert course, securing them the big win.”

Every Got to Be NC Competition Dining Series dinner event includes two chef teams battling it out, each preparing three courses centered on a featured North Carolina ingredient that is revealed only an hour before they start cooking that day. Ticketed guests get in on the action, savoring a full-service, six-course meal without knowing which chef prepared which plate. Unlike any other cooking competition, attendees vote on each dish using their smart phone, and ultimately help determine who moves on to the next round and who goes home.

The Got to Be NC Competition Dining Series now moves on to Raleigh with battles July 11, 12, 14, 18, 19, 21 and a local finale July 24. Additional information and tickets are available at www.competitiondining.com.