Shane Tallant from Fox 17's Tennessee Mornings
& HGTV's
Designed to Sell

Farm Bureau Insurance of Tennessee's Wise Farmer "Charlie"

Think of the Southern Fried Festival and what’s the first thing you think of?  Food, of course. In addition to all the varieties of morsels to enjoy from the food vendors, plan to join us Saturday on the west side of the Court House for our famous Cooking Challenge.  As you may remember, we have challenged local cooks to be their most creative from Fried Green Tomatoes to Fried Peanut Butter
and Banana Sandwiches.

This year will be no different!  We will be asking restaurant chefs from Maury County as well as areas north to prepare their very best for our judges.  Stay tuned as we announce the chefs/restaurants and their cooking category.  This year’s categories will be Fried Burgers and Fried Vegetable Cakes.

Burgers may sound simple until you realize that most chefs are used to grilling their burgers – not frying them.  So, it really can be a challenge.  Any ingredient can be used for the burger – beef, chicken, turkey, tofu, emu, or buffalo to name a few.  We suggest enhancing the burger with a special bread (it doesn’t need to come from the standard 8 package) and to be creative with their condiments.  Yum, Yum!

 The second category of Fried Vegetable Cakes might seem a mystery to some.  You just need to think about a crab cake made with vegetables instead of seafood.  Any vegetable can be used by the chef.  Again, a special sauce or salsa is suggested.

 This year our Challenge will be emceed by Shane Tallant of Fox 17’s Tennessee Mornings show.  You may also recognize him from HGTV’s “Designed to Sell.”  Shane’s appearance with us will bring a new level of fun to our Challenge. Another face you may recognize is that of Farm Bureau Insurance of Tennessee's Wise Farmer Charlie. Charlie Andrews will be using his farmer wisdom to help judge the Cooking Challenge. Shane and Charlie will be signing a few autographs and posing for photos for a short time after the Cooking Challenge.

Remember to be on the west side of the Courthouse on Saturday, September 25, before 11 a.m. so you can get a good seat for this fun Southern Fried Festival event.