Restaurant goers living in Raleigh, Durham or Chapel Hill may have reason to be excited about a new development in the Triangle restaurant scene. Fire in the Triangle, a new competition in which 16 chosen chefs from various restaurants compete against each other, June 11 and will end July 24. All but two events have already sold out.

Fire in the Triangle is an interactive dining experience in which everyone in the room gets a chance to judge each plate of food through a cell phone app. Thirty percent of the combined scores come from celebrity judges, while 70 percent of the combined scores come from the public.

According to Susan Dosier , head of public relations for the event, organizers chose the 16 chefs that will be participating in the competition based not only on their applications and the popularity of their restaurants, but also on their dedication to using local ingredients.

While North Carolina has been recognized by Bon Apptit as a hot culinary destination, the state also has a commitment to local sourcing, and according to Dosier , this competition can bring more recognition to the region. 

“I think the benefit of this is actually an incredible boost reminding people about all the local products from North Carolina that are available, and it also helps the chefs at the emerging level get some visibility that they might not ordinarily get,” Dosier said.  

Fire in the Triangle is the newest addition to the “Got To Be NC” Competition Dining series that features chefs from various areas in the state, including Blowing Rock, Wilmington and Greensboro. The idea came from Jimmy Crippen , owner of Crippen’s Country Inn & Restaurant located in Blowing Rock. According to Crippen , the idea stemmed from the cooking competitions he saw on TV. He decided that these popular shows were lacking audience connectivity and from there, he developed his idea.

“The shows were great, but wouldn’t it be great if the public could decide who gets to play?” Crippen said. “With the audience, eliminations were a lot more fun than on stage such as on ‘Iron Chef.'”

Raleigh gets its turn in Competition Dining, with its string of events that began this week.

On the day of the first competition, Shane Ingram, chef from the Four Square restaurant in Durham, and Adam Jones, chef from The Twisted Fork restaurant in Raleigh, competed against each other in a six-course meal, with three individual courses belonging to each chef.

With the secret ingredient of the night being blueberries from Ivanhoe , North Carolina, the chefs were required to use this fruit in each of their three dishes. The chefs were not allowed to cook their signature items, nor were they allowed to ask anyone for advice, a rule which was enforced by confiscation of their cell phones on the day of the competition.  

With limited time to think of ideas for three courses, both Ingram and Jones sought inspiration for their dishes from special people in their lives and what they personally enjoyed.

“What really inspired me was using what I know and the flavors that I like,” Jones said. “I think we threw away a few dishes in the process of creating the best ones. As for the dessert, it was for my father…for Father’s day.”

For Ingram, he derived his inspiration from a traumatic event that happened to a loved one during his path towards becoming a chef in New Orleans.

“During my time there, a friend of mine got shot,” Ingram said. “And during the process where I witnessed him recovering from his wounds, it really was the inspiration behind all this.”

With the final weighted score of 63.27 percent for Ingram and 61.18 percent for Jones, Ingram won by just a difference of 2.09 percent in votes.  

With the popularity of the Competitive Dining series growing within North Carolina, what is in store for the future of these events?

“I want to cover as many great areas for great food scenes as possible,” Crippen said. “When people think good food, they think Chicago, Los Angeles, New York… North Carolina needs to be one of them. Within the next year, I hope to break into a few different markets, including Charlotte.”