Saturday night I had the honor of participating in a benefit for the Craig Murphey Fellowship Fund at Hope Lounge in Brooklyn. Craig Murphey was an anti-poverty advocate who’s life was cut short in 2007 in a biking accident. Proceeds from the event go to the Craig Murphey Fellowship Program, it will help continue Craig’s commitment to ending hunger to ensure New Yorkers – no matter what their socio-economic background might be – have access to affordable food for their families!
The big event of the night was a Hummus Cook -Off, twelve great cooks were in on it (I was lucky #12), and the judges were event attendees who purchased $5 tickets to get in on the tasting and judging action. Each of the 12 contestants set up their dishes on two long tables along with their “dipables”. The competition was FEIRCE, some of dishes I was up against:
Beet Hummus
Ong Bak Thai Hummus
Chipotle Hummus
PB&J Hummus
I hung around the table snapping photos for the first 30 minutes (of the 3 hour long tasting), as the judges tasted each dish, I held my breath when they came down to my plate. My entry was the last plate in the line and my thinking was…”by the time they hit my plate they will be sick of hummus!” That wasn’t the case at all, it seemed everyone loved my spicy take on the middle eastern dip . As the night progressed, along with my consumption of alcohol, I overheard several conversations noting my dish as one of the top favorites. I was pretty excited to hear that people were into my dip, that alone was reward enough. At 9:30PM the results came in:
3rd Place: Ong Bak Thai Hummus
2nd Place Morrocan Chick Pea Hummus and……
1st Place Spicy Pumpkin Hummus Wraps
Yup my dip WON!!!!! THAT WAS EXCITING and felt great! It was a victorious night! (For Craig and for Hummus)!
To Learn more about the Craig Murphy Fellowship Program go to: http://www.nyccah.org/about.html
