Nickel City Chef XI Video Jenkins vs. Guarino

Nickel City Chef XI featured Nickel City Chef Paul Jenkins of Tempo versus Challenging Chef Jim Guarino of Shango Bistro. This was a very close battle.

The secret ingredient came to us from T-Meadow Farm, a family farm known for single-handedly repopulating the Old Gloucestershire heritage breed hog. Our competing chefs incorporated T-Meadow's chops, ground pork and smoked bacon into each dish.

Nickel City Chef XI was hosted by Bert Gambini of WBFO and his co-host, Chef Adam Goetz of Sample. Our judges included Alan Bedenko of BuffaloPundit.com, Chef Jason Bielinski of Wegmans and food writer Andrew Galarneau of The Buffalo News.

Watch the Nickel City Chef XI video here! This video was produced by Nathan Peracciny.

Tickets are still available for the last show of our second season.

On June 27th an audience of nearly 200 will watch Nickel City Chef Krista Van Wagner of Curly's compete against Chef Marco Sciortino of Marco's on Niagara Street. Judges will include comedian Kristen Becker, Kevin LoVullo, host of Spiel the Wine and Toronto-based food writer and television producer, Mary Luz Mejia.

You can also catch mini Nickel City Chef expositions at the upcoming Taste of Buffalo.

About Nickel City Chef:

Nickel City Chef takes place in one of the city’s best kept secrets–a fully restored turn-of-the-century warehouse on Buffalo’s West Side, the home of Artisan Kitchens & Baths. Completely outfitted with two competition-worthy kitchens, this unique setting is the ideal location for this exciting hyper-local cooking competition.

At each event, a Nickel City Chef and his or her challenger (each representing a locally-owned independent business) must complete three dishes in under an hour with each dish showcasing a secret ingredient. They employ classic and modern techniques in order to demonstrate their skills and personal cooking philosophy. All of Nickel City Chef’s secret ingredients always come from right here in Western New York!

A panel of professionals act as judges to determine which chef prepares the most technically perfect, creative and delicious cuisine. The audience enjoys catered snacks and delivers their own vote for their favorite chef of the day. With seating for nearly 200, Nickel City Chef events provide guests with an exciting, uniquely WNY cooking experience. With four cameras mounted in our pro kitchens and over a dozen flat screen monitors, there isn’t a bad seat in the house.

Many thanks to our sponsors: Jenn Air, SubZero, Wolf, GE Monogram, Wegmans, Mansion on Delaware Avenue, the Buffalo chapter of the Chaine de Rotisseurs, Buffalo Spree, Block Club for Business, Earth Star, WBFO 88.7 and SeaBar City.



**Nickel City Chef is a Feed Your Soul production.

Feed Your Soul is a company dedicated to developing and executing both private and public events focused on the food and agriculture of Western New York. Feed Your Soul was founded on the firm belief that agritourism and culinary tourism should not only be a major aspect of traveling in WNY, but are a fundamental component to Buffalo’s renaissance. Nickel City Chef is only one of Feed Your Soul’s projects, see the Feed Your Soul website for a current schedule.

Feed Your Soul's Summer Schedule

Feed Your Soul, (the producers of the hit series, Nickel City Chef) are pleased to present you with a summer of fun programming which focuses on the magnificent agriculture and talented chefs of our region. Journey to some of our area's most unique farms with our very popular Foodie-to-Farm series, or stay in the city and experience one of our best food markets, learning to prepare a tasty and seasonal meal at the side of a top chef with our new Chef & Market Lunches!

Chef & Market Lunches start each adventure by meeting at the Elmwood-Bidwell Farmers Market, where we will take a tour led by food writer Christa Glennie Seychew and one of her chef friends. During the tour we will meet some of the farmers and vendors, talk about their growing methods and seasonal offerings and sample some of their wares. The chef will be able to answer questions you may have about some of the more unique vegetables and fruits sold at the market, offering tips for both storing and preparing them.


Throughout the tour, the group, with the guidance of our chef, will gather the freshest of what’s in season (and maybe a few extra treats) before we make our way down the street to Delish, Elmwood’s favorite cooking demonstration school and bakery. At Delish, our chef for the day will then lead us through a simple and impromptu lunch preparation using all of our market purchases. Finally, we will sit with cold lemonade and our fresh, farmers market meal and enjoy one another’s company.

Foodie-to-Farm Tours

Our farm tours sell out every summer. We love that what started three summers ago as a way to connect chefs to our local harvest has become an annual series not only well-attended by our region’s top chefs, but also by foodies, health practitioners, nutritionists, culinary students and everyday people interested in seeing another side of WNY. With our unique and remarkable climate and prime soil ratings, it is no surprise that our 8,500 farms (most of which are small and family-owned) are a major contributor to our country’s food supply. In addition to a large dairy, maple and produce industry, we also are home to two wine trails, talented artisan foodmakers and a variety of farmers raising livestock. Join us this summer for one of our three farm tours, where great meals prepared by chefs, farmer-led field walks, sampling and information about sustainability and our agrarian bounty will be discovered.