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Chefs cheffed, judges judged, and the crowd crowded in for a pressure-packed quickfire challenge at Whole Foods last weekend pitting Rene Lenger (Switch), Jet Tila (Wazuzu), Bianca Freeny (Whole Foods), Kuldeep Singh (Origin India) and Jean Paul Labadie (Marche Bacchus) against each other in a throwdown over who could cook think up and cook the tastiest dish (from a randomly selected protein) in 45 minutes.

When J-P Labadie picked the chicken breast out of the hat, we thought there was no way he could make it dance to a winning melody.

Likewise, we were convinced Kuldeep couldn’t make scallops Singh.

But by the end of the cooking, there they were, the winner (Labadie) and second place (Singh), who matched their dishes perfectly with the Quickfire wines being poured.

Truth be told, the margins between the dishes were cheesecloth-thin, and all of the chefs created and cooked their asses off in about the time it takes ELV to slice an onion.

And what distinguished Labadie’s chicken roulade with potato pancake from the other dishes? Overall taste, perfectly cooked, technique (it was the most difficult dish to pull off), and wine friendliness.