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Philly Hop Chef Contestants Announced; Twitter Already Afire With Sh-t Talk

Hop Chef
Hop Chef

There’s a good chance that your Twitter feed will soon be overrun with an endless litany of dick jokes and tons more sophomoric shit-talk from the six local chefs Brewery Ommegang tapped yesterday to compete in this year’s Hop Chef competition. In the weeks running up to last year’s showdown, the competitors lit up the twittersphere pretty much ‘round the clock with some of the lamest jokes ever told, and constant barrage of crude chatter aimed at one another. This year, we shouldn’t expect any less. Contestants this time include Yun Fuentes (JG Domestic), Lucio Palazzo (La Calaca Feliz); Nick Macri (Southwark); Pat Szoke (The Industry); Eli Kulp (Fork); and Mike Deganis (Alla Spina).

According to the announcement, the local semi-finals will take place on Tuesday, April 23 at Union Transfer. Like the last year’s bout, in which former Stateside, and soon-to-be Morgan’s Pier chef George Sabatino reigned supreme, the winner from the Philly contest will go on to compete for all the marbles in the Grand Hop Chef cook-off at Ommegang’s Belgium Comes to Cooperstown festival, which is being held at the Cooperstown, NY brewery from August 2 to 4.

Tickets for the cook-off are $53.50, and on sale now. Get them here. The competition challenges each chef to come up with a dish to pair with Ommegang ales. A panel of judges will evaluate the dishes based on Simple Pairing, a direct interaction between food and beer; Incorporation, utilizing beer in the cooking process; Mimicking, matching the flavor profile of a dish with the flavor profile of a beer; Story Telling, tracing the history of the dish and the beer; and Experimental, making beer the star of the dish.

Less than 24 hours after the competition’s announcement, the shit-talk has already begun. Keep tabs on #HopChef to keep track.

Philly Hop Chef Contestants Announced; Twitter Already Afire With Sh-t Talk