In the same year that the four-year old Chow Chow culinary festival went defunct, an idea for a new festival emerged.
The inaugural Bite Me AVL hopes to set the table differently than the traditional food festival format – with larger portions, lower price points and a schedule that’s better geared to serve locals and service industry workers.
Bite Me debuts on Wednesday, August 14 and runs through Sunday, August 18. It’s produced by Jefferson Ellison, a public relations professional who grew up in Asheville. The planning committee also includes Jennifer Rodriguez, Sarah Fiori and Melinda Hanley.
Ellison first got the idea for Bite Me when he found out in February Chow Chow would shut down, he said.
In an Instagram post, he asked his followers to imagine a different kind of food festival. “It was something about ‘what if we did things differently?” he said.
The community had plenty to say.
“Everyone has the same complaints [about food festivals], no matter where you are. It's hot. The food is small. It's overpriced and chefs don't feel supported,” Ellison shared.
“And a lot of people feel like in Asheville that things are targeted towards tourists and not toward locals. So we were like, okay, how can we do something that feels like it’s geared towards everyone?”
No more tiny plates
Ellison and his planning committee took the feedback and ran with it. They ditched the traditional tasting event that’s traditionally been the centerpiece of Asheville food festivals – and the tiny paper plates of food that come with it.
Instead, the five-day event has a “choose your own journey” model, with a blend of smaller-scale cooking classes, plated dinners, workshops and panels. Several events are free – including Sunday’s “Big Ass Cook Out” and Saturday’s “Community Market.” Panels include everything from a knife making demonstration to an interactive cake decorating workshop.
Bailey Landry, a pastry chef at Vivian, said she welcomes this new format.
“With the traditional tasting structure, it's really hard to come up with things to bring to the public,” she said. “You have to bring all of your equipment there. You have to bring all of these supplies. You have to bring plates, forks… You also have to make food that is a small enough portion that can kind of please everyone while showcasing your talents. So with all of those limitations, it's really difficult.”
Many of her friends and colleagues, Landry shared, never attended Chow Chow. That might’ve been because it was considered a lot of “extra work,” according to Landry.
“The structure that Bite Me is doing is a lot more natural for chefs because you’re cooking in a professional kitchen, you'll have all the tools you need and food that you need already on hand,” she said.
That’s not to say the festival won’t include fancy food. But those meals will happen primarily inside of restaurants as plated meals.
Cultura, a fine dining restaurant on the South Slope, will host two dinners – one from the team at Not Another Supper Club and a special evening from Chef Lay Alston, a James Beard fellow and founder of an accessible mobile restaurant soul&wheel.
There’s also a big emphasis on night-life, with after-parties taking place in the evening, including a Friday night rave with Different Wrld at The Mule and a Saturday night throwdown at The Double Crown, a beloved West Asheville dive bar that’s popular among local service industry workers.
“Of course, we're ending our night at The Double Crown – because that's where all of us go,” Ellison joked. "The idea that we would not be at The Double Crown on Saturday night, makes no sense to me. And so we needed to make that happen.”
Stirring the pot with hot-button industry issues
Dialogue is another important element of the festival. Bite Me’s opening event, “The HOT Seat” will put together civic leaders and food and beverage professionals in the same room to discuss the state of the industry.
The focus of the conversation will center around “the future of the food economy in Asheville,” Ellison said.
“It’s the conversation everyone’s been having at home and at bars… but very rarely do those conversations happen in public with the people who have the power to make those decisions and have that lived experience, with the premise of hey, let's find a solution.”
“Like, what does it mean to pay a living wage? How does one engage in tourism in a way that feels good and healthy without being extractive? What does it mean when people say we want to get rid of tourism? Like how does that impact the rest of our lives? And is that even possible or plausible?” he continued.
The conversation will include: Jen Hampton of the Food and Beverage Union; Explore Asheville CEO Vic Isley; Asheville City Council member Kim Roney; Buggy Pops owner Neomi Negron; Asheville Independent Restaurant Director Meghan Rogers; Chef Katie Button of Curate; and, Director of the Asheville Brewers Alliance Karis Roberts.
Top Chef: Asheville edition
A cooking competition is another highlight of this year’s festivities. On Friday, four chefs will go head-to-head in a cooking competition. Each contestant will receive a “mystery box” of ingredients and will have about 45 minutes to cook and plate a dish that will be judged by Stu Helm, Ashleigh Shanti and Hawa Hassan.
In the first round, Nickolas Abbott, a student at AB-Tech and the American Culinary Federation’s Regional Chef of the Year, will face off against Ryan Cline, the executive chef of the high-end restaurant Jargon.
Rakim Gaines of Capella on 9 will also compete against Suji May, head chef at Thai Pearl.
The winners will then compete for the grand title – and a $1,000 cash prize.
For Abbott, it’ll be a big step up from his regular competition. “I'm going to be going against someone with much more experience and a much more refined palette than I have,” he told BPR. “So I'm really gonna have to buckle down and do my research and make sure I'm on the tip top of my game.”
Abbott said he’s been practicing with different plate compositions, flavor profiles and his knife work to prepare for the competition. But whether he wins or loses, he’s excited for the chance to get together with the community.
“Anytime you get a group of food enthusiasts or foodies or chefs in a room, an amazing thing happens full of networking and passion and that all seems to flourish,” he said. “I'm super excited for Bite Me to bring the food crowd of Asheville together and put us all under one roof.”
Tickets for Bite Me are $149. Event tickets and day passes are available and run from $20 to $79. See the full schedule.
