In a continuing partnership between the Cleveland NAACP, The Real Black Friday, the Cavs and Aramark, Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse will welcome 20 black chefs who own local Cleveland restaurants, food trucks and catering businesses to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse for A Taste of Black Cleveland: The Food Showcase 3.0 on Monday, February 10th.
After very successful events in 2017 and 2018, The Food Showcase 3.0 (formerly the Launch Test Kitchen Food Tasting & Business Development Experience) is expanding from an annual private tasting and industry event to a public celebration of food and opportunity as part of Cleveland’s dynamic restaurant landscape.
Tickets are $30 and include admission and food at The Food Showcase 3.0 and one ticket to the Cavs vs. Philadelphia 76ers game on Wednesday, February 26th. Tickets are available for purchase online at http://rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com/thefoodshowcase3.0 or at the Box Office at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Proceeds from The Food Showcase 3.0 tickets will benefit Cleveland NAACP’s Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO), a yearlong achievement program designed to recruit, stimulate, and encourage high academic and cultural achievement among African-American high school students, and the Cavaliers Community Foundation (CCF), supporting programs for children, families and young adults designed to positively impact the community in the areas of education, health, recreation, employment, entrepreneurship and life skills.
Twenty local black chefs will earn the opportunity to participate in The Food Showcase 3.0 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, including the five highest-scoring restaurants voted on by locals during Black Restaurant Week 2019. Chefs will prepare their signature dishes for guests to sample and vote on their favorite items based on quality, variety and presentation of dishes.
The winners will be awarded cash and prizes, as well as consideration for additional opportunities at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and more. They will also be recognized on-court at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse during the Cavaliers game on Wednesday, February 12th vs. the Atlanta Hawks.
In addition to the tasting event itself, a continuing core element of the The Food Showcase 3.0 will also provide all participants with additional business development training and networking opportunities with other local chefs and food and business development industry professionals.
Previous winners include Tiwanna Scott-Williams in 2017, whose unique and flavorful comfort food concept called Pearl’s Kitchen can now be found on the main street-level concourse at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Prior to Pearl’s Kitchen, she worked with Aramark, the food and beverage provider for Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, and the Cavs on another successful concept featured at LTK based around her Pearl Flower Catering business during the 2018 season. Chef Tiwanna’s featured item for Black Restaurant Week is her savory Crispy Chicken Sandwich, which can be enjoyed exclusively at Pearl’s Kitchen inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Other previous winners include Chef Vic Searcy (Sauce The City) and Chef Sonia Steele (Vegan Vicki), who have items featured on menus in the Budweiser Brew House and in premium spaces around Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, respectively.
For more information on the 2019 event, click here, and for more information on the 2017 event, click here.