It was the first time I'd ever seen a chef pour liquid nitrogen over anything at the State Fair of Texas. As a crowd of 100 or more looked on, Top Chef Season 9 contestant Richie Farina doused fried baskets of food with white wisps of smoke. That ain't how we do it here, chef. But gosh if it didn't make the State Fair of Texas seem fancy.
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Farina was in the midst of a head-to-head battle with Brent and Juan Reaves, the Texas brothers behind Smokey John's Bar-B-Que restaurant and a State Fair concessions company. The battle between Farina and the Reaves brothers may eventually show up on TV, possibly on the Food Network.
On Wednesday, they huddled under tents at the State Fair, serving as the main characters for a pilot episode where Farina tries to create carnival-like food to rival chefs already beloved in their home state. The chef who amasses the most votes wins.
The Reaveses made their Big Tex Choice Awards Finalist dish, Deep-Fried Bacon Burger Dog Slider on a Stick. It's one of the more popular dishes at their concession stand, and it's certainly one of the more outrageous. Farina's task was to make his own creation to rival Smokey John's famed beefy porker.
Farina's was decidedly more complex. One taster, Dainyale Carson from DeSoto, described his as a "reverse cheeseburger," with meat, a "wazoo of cheese," mushrooms and other ingredients stuffed into a deep-fried mound on a stick. It came with a side of skinny fried onions.
"It's good fair food," Carson says of Farina's dish. "You can drink beer with it. And that pickle gave me life." Her vote went to Farina.
Husband and wife audience members Katie and Ryan Misch, of Flower Mound, preferred the original from the Reaves brothers, and both voted for the hometown crew. "I like the batter better," Ryan says of their Deep-Fried Bacon Burger Dog Slider on a Stick. Katie noted it was "nice and greasy" -- and that's a good thing.
Henry Pham, from Garland, gave his vote to Farina, whose dish had a little more "depth of flavor," he decided.
Only one group could win. (And we can't tell you which it was. Sorry, no spoilers!) If the show gets picked up for television, we'll tell you more. Meantime, you want some fried food now, don't you? Check out "Your definitive list of best and worst State Fair of Texas' new foods, ranked."
Look inside the filming of a TV pilot with chef Richie Farina at the State Fair of Texas:
