×

A few minutes with Fete Rouge winner Matthew Reed

Chef Matthew Reed of Reed’s Catering took home the Best in Show Award at last week’s Fęte Rouge chef’s competition.

Reed won for his “Twins Duet”—an homage to his newly-born twins—which featured a girl’s plate of Holden strawberry shortbread with a Chambord and Mayhaw milkshake as well as a boy’s plate of Guinness vanilla ice cream and house-made Feaux Ore-eaux. The dishes also took first place in the dessert category.

For Reed, who placed third in the meat category at last year’s festivities, the win is still a bit surreal, and he was humbled by the victory.

“I know the amount of years of experience in that room,” he says. “It’s such a competitive atmosphere. Months before the event, the chefs are all planning the things they’re going to do. People put their best foot forward. Everybody wants to take home the hardware.”

Reed had submitted the Twins Duet with a girl and boy’s plate before he knew he would have a daughter and son.

“I got a little lucky,” he says. “A month ago this week, they were born.”

Before submitting his dish, Reed had talked with Cody Carroll of Hot Tails Restaurant about having something with technical difficulty and a story.

“It dawned on me that what I had previously submitted at Fęte Rouge and CrawFęte didn’t start with the story,” Reed says. “These dishes this year started with the story.”

Reed also had a dish in the meat category, a revamped take on his grandmother’s beef stew. Other winners from this year’s Fęte Rouge include Chef Kevin Ortego’s Fresh Fish en Papillotte with jumbo lump crab and shrimp stuffing finished with a garlic Buerre Blanc sauce, which took home the People’s Choice Award.

See a list of all the winners.