Local caterer wins 9 Chefs competition

Local chef and caterer William Wells took home top prize at WAFB’s 9 Chefs competition, that pitted amateur chefs against pros in a live cooking contest at the Louisiana Culinary Institute which aired on WAFB this morning. Chefs were given a bag of surprise ingredients and given an hour to cook a breakfast dish with everything from oysters to bitter chocolate. The 25-year veteran of the catering business won a new gas cooktop, a knife set, leisure classes at LCI and dinner at La Creole, among other prizes. “This was definitely worth waking up for,” Wells joked, as the competition began around 4:30 a.m. for the contestants. And although the prizes were great—he plans to install the cooktop in a new outdoor kitchen—the best part of the competition, Wells says, was meeting other chefs. For more information on the competition at wafb.com.