MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - Red Haven Farm to Table held a food truck battle Thursday September 29th. They teamed up with Good Bites restaurant where they pit two amazing chefs and two bartenders in a two round battle royale.

At the beginning of each round there was a secret ingredient introduced.

The chefs then had 40 minutes to prepare with the bartenders only having 20. The head to head battle was between Red Havens Executive Chef/Owner Anthony Maiale,
Sous Chef Keith Szczepanski and Bartender Douglas Mulkey. Against Good Bites Executive Chef/Owner Jonathan Fraser and Sous Chef Jeffrey Vanhorn; With American Fifth Spirits Bartender Connor Baughman.

The guests and judges were all in as they were able to walk around and have a personal view of what was in store for them to eat and drink.

This event is one that started from a little interruption due to a Michigan State Football championship game falling on New Years, says Red Havens manager Nina Santucci.

“As a restaurant with no TV’s we knew it was going to be a major diss to our business, we were trying to come up with, what could we do to make the night exciting, to get people out who maybe just don’t want to watch the football game,” said Santucci.

The restaurant ended up having a New Years Eve bash with horderves and set up a projector and TV’s to air the game and also did the cooking competition with the Creole restaurant.

The event was successful and people seemed to be really interested so they thought it would be great to keep it going.

“we thought it would be a great way to get local area chefs involved and kind of get a buzz about food and bringing the comradery between restaurants where I think Lansing for a long time has been a town where there’s not that bond between restaurants, it’s a little bit everyone for themselves so we wanted to build these relationships,” Santucci said.

After the second round of the battle the judges tallied up the scores and the winners were Red Havens Bartender Douglas Mukley as well as their owner and Executive Chef Anthony Maiale.

Red Haven and other restaurants take turns every other month between venues and host an event.

If you would like to attend a food truck battle, please contact Red Haven Farm to table at 517-678-6309.