Las Vegas Weekly

It’s ‘Top Chef’ meets ‘Iron Chef’ at the BOH Brawl

The culinary throwdown features fine dining chefs in food truck kitchens

Andre’s chef Gary FX LaMorte puts together a plate.

Photo: Beverly Poppe

When I first saw the flier for Boh Brawl on Facebook, I immediately thought it was a reference to Natural Bohemian or Natty Boh, Baltimore’s down market/hipster revival beer of choice. Clearly, I’ve been spending too much time on the East Coast.

The BOH Brawl—as in back of house brawl—is actually a one-on-one Iron Chef meets Top Chef culinary throwdown. In other words, a chef’s sweaty early-morning nightmare and one brutally entertaining cooking competition.

Here’s how it works: Every Saturday night a handful of food trucks show up at Tommy Rocker’s and serve up tasty snacks to people hanging at the bar. When the clock hits 1:30 a.m. (aka when most Strip and local chefs are finally done for the night), it’s time to Brawl. Two high-end chefs are given identical mystery baskets of ingredients and have 30 minutes to create four servings of a dish or dishes using everything in the basket. The catch? They have to do it all in a food truck kitchen that usually has a griddle, an oven and not much else.

“The fun of it is they kind of take away everything you use on a daily basis to be really excellent. They take away all your big tools and let you go at it,” says chef Gary Fx LaMorte, newly of Michael Mina Group, who’ll be taking on Comme Ca’s Brian Howard this Saturday in front of a crowd likely heavy with hospitality folks.

Last week, the inaugural Brawl featured Geno Bernardo from Nove Italiano against Josh Smith from Milos using a basket packed with ground bison, fresh chiles, pizza dough and turnips, all selected by Jolene Manning of Sloppi Jo’s food truck. A panel of judges tasted the final product and voted on the winner—Milos’ Smith.

“The winner of the last one got to pick the ingredients for this one, so I’m expecting some interesting stuff. In the back of my mind I see fresh squid or octopus,” LaMorte says. “Challenges of this nature rely on innate ability, not things that have been practiced. I’m not overthinking it all. I’m going to cook the way that I would at home for a loved one.”

LaMorte, until recently cheffing at Andre’s at the Monte Carlo, has just accepted a position on Michael Mina’s corporate travel team. In his new role, he’ll be working with various Mina restaurants around the country, helping conceptualize menus, open venues and problem solve, starting with a new joint opening at the Four Seasons in Baltimore. And while I can’t reveal the dish he’s most excited to put on the menu, I will say that it’s a down market Baltimore favorite sure to be popular with the locals … much like Natty Boh.