Papa Mojo's, Watts Grocery, Il Palio and Carolina Crossroads in the running

For details on the competition, visit www.ncagr.gov/markets/gginc/bestdish/

BY DAWN BAUMGARTNER VAUGHAN

dvaughan@heraldsun.com; 419-6563

DURHAM -- Four local restaurants are among the 20 North Carolina eateries competing in the statewide Best Dish contest sponsored by the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and Our State magazine. Carolina Crossroads restaurant at the Carolina Inn and Il Palio Ristorante at the Siena Hotel, both in Chapel Hill, are also both competing in the fine dining category. Il Palio was a finalist last year, too. In the casual dining category, two-time winner Papa Mojo's Roadhouse in Durham is again in the running. New to the contest this year is Watts Grocery in Durham.

Papa Mojo's chef and owner Mel Melton said they are excited to be a finalist in the contest for three years running. They won the grand prize in 2008 and placed third last year, both in the casual dining category.

"It really is an honor to be in the same league with the best chefs, and restaurants, in the state," Melton said.

The Papa Mojo's competing menu this summer has four courses, starting with an appetizer of colossal shrimp with crab stuffing, fried and served with jezebel sauce. The soup is fresh corn bisque with local goat cheese crostini. The entree is ale braised pork osso buco with cane syrup glazed sweet potatoes and pan cooked greens. For dessert, there is a rustic peach tart with vanilla ice cream and pecan praline topping.

Repeat finalist Il Palio will showcase its competing menu beginning in late June and through July. It uses ingredients from more than half a dozen local farmers who provide fresh food. Sous chef Anthony Shambley said they met with farmers to find out what ingredients they would have to work with and then created the menus, keeping a lower price point in mind for customers.

The resulting menu will include chicken picatta, pomodoro, corn bisque, North Carolina crab, kerala tomato chutney, fava bean salad and "more tomatoes than you can shake a stick at," Shambley said. He wasn't working at Il Palio during last year's competition, so is excited about it this year. "It's just exciting to be here. I love my job -- the creativity, good staff, always something to do," he said.

Carolina Crossroads restaurant manager Laura Gearhart said the competition is a great opportunity for them. Three competing dishes are organic arugula salad with Farmer's Market beets, Hillsborough Cheese Company feta, toasted hazelnuts and blood orange vinagrette; North Carolina grown asparagus, arugula, prosciutto di parma, Hillsborough Cheese ricotta, crispy Latta Farm poached egg, aged sherry vinegar and za'atar oil; and roasted Chatham County poulet rouge chicken with North Carolina fingerling sweet potatoes, asparagus, caramelized cippolini onions, zucchini and roasted chicken jus. The items are already on the menu, and will be available throughout May.

Watts Grocery, the relatively new Durham restaurant that has already garnered national attention, is competing with several dishes this summer. Two appetizers are sauteed shrimp and house cured bacon on a Hickory Grove cheese biscuit with yellow tomato beurre blanc; and Southern bruschetta with heirloom tomatoes, Elodie Farms goat cheese and pea tendrils in lemon vinaigrette over grilled sourdough bread. The main course is sweet tea brined Guinea hen over creamed white corn with a summer tomato, cucumber and basil salad. For dessert, there is a summer berry slump with sugared blueberries and blackberries with buttermilk ice cream.

Watts Grocery chef owner Amy Tornquist said this is the first time they have entered the competition. The restaurant will be judged in July, though she is hoping to have the Best Dish items on the menu at Watts for the full summer menu, from June 15 through Aug. 15. She collaborated with the great cooks in her kitchen, Tornquist said, to decide what to create for the competition based on what was in season and grown in North Carolina.

An anonymous panel of three judges will visit restaurants now through July and judge dishes on use of North Carolina products, creativity, presentation, taste and promotion. Winners will be announced in August.

Previous local winners include Four Square Restaurant in Durham, which won the 2009 First Place for Fine Dining.

Other 2010 finalists from across the state are:

Fine Dining -- Grove Park Inn Blue Ridge Dining Room, Asheville; Red Stag Grill, Asheville; Simplicity at the Mast Farm Inn, Banner Elk; Beaufort Grocery Co., Beaufort; Table at Crestwood, Boone; The Gallery Restaurant at the Ballentyne Resort, Charlotte; Ashten's, Southern Pines; and Deluxe, Wilmington.

Casual Dining -- Bistro 42, Asheboro; Earth Fare, Asheville; Giorgio Restaurant Bar and Lounge, Cary; Kitchen Roselli, East Bend; Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen, Greensboro; Outer Banks Brewing Station, Kill Devil Hills; Kornerstone Bistro, Wilmington; and Yancey House Restaurant, Yanceyville, which took home first place in 2009.