[VIDEO] And the Winner of the Shoreline Chef Competition Is ...

You all know the saying, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen," but at Old Lyme's Midsummer Festival's BEAT Shoreline Chef Competition this weekend, it was getting out of the rain that was the problem. 

Armed with sharp knives and jars of spices, four top area chefs threw down over hot burners on July 28. This year's entrants included three chefs from Old Lyme—Dennis Young of , Kris Rowe of the , Nick Dion of Jessie's Restaurant—and Debra Corning from The Monkey Farm Cafe in Old Saybrook, who so far has been the first woman to throw her chef's hat into the ring.

Each chef was allowed to bring five items of their own choosing but all had to use seven secret ingredients that were revealed at the start of the competition. This year, those were Pancetta, goat's cheese from Beltone Farm, zucchini and peaches from Scott's Farm, quail eggs, scallions, and honey from Oakledge Apiaries.

"When I heard it was going to include secret ingredients I said to my friend, 'With my luck, it's going to be quail eggs!'" said Corning, adding that she'd never cooked quail eggs until that moment. "You've got to go with what you have."

Just like Iron Chef and Top Chef, this was a timed contest so chefs didn't have many minutes to think about what they were going to prepare to wow the judges. Seated at the judge's table this year were Lee White, food writer for the Lyme Times; Sheldon Baker, PM Magazine's Phantom Gourmet; Linda Luica, food writer for the Hartford Courant; and Amy Barry, freelance writer for Shoreline Publishing Company.

Contest organizer Linnea Rufo, coowner of the , said her biggest challenge was the rain, which forced them to relocate the tent set up for the event from down by the Lieutenant River to next to the porch at the Florence Griswold Museum so spectators could have a dry spot from which to view the action.

Rufo said the judges had a really hard time picking a winner but in the end it was the Bee & Thistle Inn's own Kris Rowe who took the top spot, followed by contest newcomer Debra Corning, who was particularly pleased that she managed to poach quail eggs without breaking a single yoke! 

"I had fun!" Corning said.