In the “The Makers Plating Contest,” Chef’s Roll and Libbey challenged 50 chefs to make and plate a dish that showcases who they are as a chef using beautiful plates provided by Libbey. These chefs all created amazing dishes that represented their chef journey, fond memories, important people, and even their cities and neighborhoods. The competition was extremely stiff, however only 3 lucky chefs could win all the incredible prizes – including hundreds of dollars, Libby gift cards, Boldric knife rolls, and Chef’s Roll Apparel coats.
Congratulations to our winning chefs! Scroll below to see which lucky and talented chefs were chosen as our winners, as well as a few well-deserved honorable mentions.
You can see all the beautiful dishes plated in this contest at #MakersPlatingContest on Instagram.
1st PLACE WINNER
takes home $1,000, $100 in Libbey store credit, a brown leather one-buckle knife roll from Boldric, and a custom Chef’s Roll Apparel chef coat.
“The Beet & The Bee” — Ginger + Honey Roasted Beets • Pickled Beets • Turmeric-Lime Yogurt • Pistachio • Goat Cheese • Honeycomb • Bee Pollen
“As a kid who grew up in an impoverished part of the city, my memories of strawberries were the most vivid during the summer time. The first time I had them was in preschool when my teacher dipped them directly into a bowl of sugar and handed them to me. She did this because living in a poor area meant they were usually as tart as lemons. Growing up, a lot of fruits didn’t really have much taste, but with a little help from sugar, salt, and spices, they became more enjoyable. As I started to work in the culinary industry, I realized California was one of the best places a chef can work. I found farmers markets where fruits and vegetables were fresh and delicious. Each year as summer came, I would get strawberries to make different desserts.”
2nd PLACE WINNER
takes home $500, $100 in Libbey store credit, a navy canvass tie bag Boldric knife roll, and a custom Chef’s Roll Apparel chef coat.
Vanilla Bean Cheesecake • Strawberry Cremeux • Graham Cracker Tuile • Strawberry Gel • Fresh Strawberries
“As a kid who grew up in an impoverished part of the city, my memories of strawberries were the most vivid during the summer time. The first time I had them was in preschool when my teacher dipped them directly into a bowl of sugar and handed them to me. She did this because living in a poor area meant they were usually as tart as lemons. Growing up, a lot of fruits didn’t really have much taste, but with a little help from sugar, salt, and spices, they became more enjoyable. As I started to work in the culinary industry, I realized California was one of the best places a chef can work. I found farmers markets where fruits and vegetables were fresh and delicious. Each year as summer came, I would get strawberries to make different desserts.”
3rd PLACE WINNER
takes home $100 in Libbey store credit, a black canvas tool roll from Boldric, and a custom Chef’s Roll Apparel chef coat.
California Delta Asparagus • Sauce Gribiche • Pickled Pearl Onions • Smoked Chanterelles • Pistachio
“My personality comes through in my food… undeniably. Precise, technical, textural, colorful and complex. These are traits of myself I cannot deny. While in the end simplicity and minimal treatment of ingredients is important sometimes it’s fun just to let loose and make something beautiful.”
HONORABLE MENTIONS
“The overall theme of this dessert is inspired by the ocean, as an homage to some of my favorite child hood memories. As a kid, nothing thrilled me more than the the salty ocean air I experienced every summer on vacation. The coconut ice cream, isolmalt bubbles, and sea salt in the olive oil sand (made with tapioca maltodextrine) represent a taste of the ocean that I’ve always loved so much. The green apples give the dish some freshness, and represent the restaurant that inspired me to start cooking. They cut the apples exactly like this for their salads, and as simple as that is, as a high schooler learning to cook, it fascinated me that you could making something as ordinary as a green apple look so refined. Popcorn has always been one of my favorite snacks, and I love the playfulness and crunchy element it brings to the dish. I elevated it by carefully coating it in gold leaf. All of these elements together represent me, my childhood, and my culinary journey.”
“This is my sashimi salmon with citrus and beets. This plate is a story of my career and where I come from. I live in Citrus Heights California and being that we are in the Sacramento region we have the most amazing fresh local produce year round. I love to support the local farmers and growers as much as possible. Everything on this plate is local. I wanted to show different techniques that I have learned over the years and show my evolution of plating.”
“This dish represents my childhood in East La Boyle Heights California. I always say, ‘Have you ever seen “Cheech and Chong” or if you know lowriders and gangsters, well that’s where I’m from; the “Barrio .’ This dish represents the trips down the street grabbing flan at the local panederia ( bakery shop ) or my aunts house on Camulos St. We all know flan as its popular dessert egg custard, and rich and creamy delight. The progressive technique of plating came from working at places like Spago Beverly Hills and Cut Steakhouse by Wolfgang Puck , where I learned about plating technique and flavor utilizing your culture. I then moved to Maui, Hawaii where I became influenced by a melting pot of Hawaiian Regional Cuisine . I worked at Spago Maui then really went head on to work with Chef Alan Wong in Honolulu . It is there that I really learned to embrace my Mexican culture and utilize it with the Hawaiian melting pot (Japanese, Portuguese , Korean, Filipino , Chinese , Samoan , Tahitian ) to name a few . This dish embraces all my years of cooking and traveling focusing on my Mexican culture and challenging the limits on plating technique.”
“Sanchoku Wagyu, Forced Rhubarb, Fiddlehead Ferns, and Blackberry Fluid Gel. Utilizing the plate’s topographic map style of design, I’ve created a dish reminiscent of my home town Queenstown, New Zealand. A snowy mountainous ski area with bushland ferns and berries abundant. Sweet, bitter, peppery, fatty; the dish is designed to bring together all the joyful elements of that amazing place.”
“This dish represents some of the flavors that I had while growing up in my hometown in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. After moving to Miami, I got inspired by other chefs and different flavors that I had never had the chance to experience before. Here, in this beautiful plate, I get to unite both of this worlds and showcase some of this amazing ingredients: Dulce De Leche Panna Cotta, Brown Butter Miso Sweet Plantain Sponge Cake, Passion Fruit Ice Cream, Coconut Espelette Meringue, Keffir Lime Gel, Key Lime Curd & Char Blood Orange.”
“Squid Ink Pasta in a Lemon, Caper, Butter Sauce with Seared Ahi Tuna, Cherry Tomato & Garlic Puree, Basil Foam and Broccoli Sprouts. A lot of thought went into this dish. As a child, all I wanted to eat was pasta. But only ever spaghetti with butter and salt. No cheese, no sauce, no vegetables and no meat. This didn’t really change until I started into my teenage years. As I’ve grown, both in age and as a culinarian, my palate has expanded as well. But my love for pasta has remained. I will always revert back to pasta, both as a comfort food and as means to growing as a chef. And now, I can easily say I love it without just the butter and salt.”
