The Key Ingredient Cook Off Kicks Off Again This Friday

• Julia Thiel
• Zoe Schor’s geoduck popcorn, created for her Key Ingredient challenge

Now in its third year, the Key Ingredient Cook-Off—featuring 22 chefs from our James Beard award-winning series, Key Ingredient—lands at the Lacuna Artist Lofts on Friday. As with Key Ingredient, the cook-off will challenge each chef to cook with a specific ingredient; this year’s ingredients are cactus, coffee, sun-dried tomatoes, and chia seeds—plus one secret ingredient that we haven’t announced yet (all previously featured in Key Ingredient). For four hours, attendees can taste dishes created by some of the city’s best chefs and drink cocktails by Mark Daress of Liquor Lab, beer from All Rise Brewing, and wine from Sonoma-Cutrer. A VIP hour before the main event also features food by Dave Beran, executive chef at Next and winner of the 2014 James Beard award for Best Chef: Great Lakes, plus cocktails, beer, and wine on the rooftop of the Lacuna Artist Lofts.