held at the New York Wine & Culinary Center

On September 13th, nine top chefs from the Finger Lakes and surrounding restaurants will each team up with a group of amateur foodies and compete against each other in an Iron Chef-like event to be held at the New York Wine & Culinary Center‘s Hands-On Kitchen.

Each team will be asked to create and properly plate dishes using common “Market Basket” ingredients. However, new this year, each heat will be given a surprise theme that will dictate the subject for each team to illustrate with their recipes,  food styles and plating. All of the ingredients available to them will come from New York and showcase the vast amount of products that can be found in the area, of course. Along with creating a food story (teams will not be limited by numbers, but by how well they represent the Finger Lakes Experience) within one hour – the chefs will also have the task of pairing each of their dishes with a wine from the Finger Lakes.

The meals will be judged by a panel of food experts from the Finger Lakes, and the top chef of each heat will move on to the Slice, Dice and Spice NY finals on September 19th.

At the finals, there will be tasting tables from local and regional restaurants, food producers and wineries along with live music. On this day, the chefs will compete as they did on the 13th, once again be given a common subject line to illustrate a Finger Lakes experience. Only this time, one team will be crowned the winner of 2010’s Slice, Dice and Spice NY competition.

Read some of the Buzz on Slice Dice and Spice, NY