Festival Event: Dueling Chefs Accompanied by Bluegrass

A special musical and culinary event will take place this weekend, in conjunction with the 41st Annual Cedar Key Seafood Festival, which will be held at Cedar Key City Park on Saturday and Sunday.

Two of Florida`s celebrity chefs, Dean Max, executive chef at 3030 Ocean Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, and Peter Stefani, owner of The Island Room in Cedar Key, will do culinary battle. The dueling chefs, one from Florida`s east coast and the other from the west, will prepare their signature dishes with clams from their local waters.

Chef Max, who recently was crowned "King of American Seafood" at the Great American Seafood Cook-off in New Orleans, will prepare Sebastian Inlet Clams VVLT (bacon, basil, lettuce and tomato) using clams from the Sebastian Inlet. Chef Stefani will use Cedar Key-grown clams to prepare Clams with Mustard Greens and House-smoked Tasso. Samples of each dish will be available to the audience.

In addition to delicious gourmet food, the audience also will be treated to music by claw hammer banjo player Mark Johnson, who will beam up with Backwater, an Ocala-based bluegrass band.

During the festival, the City Park will be filled with booths selling local seafood. Church groups, school clubs, non-profit groups and oyster and clamming associations will serve up grouper sandwiches, oysters, clams, clam fritters, crab cakes, smoked mullet and all the trimmings. The festival also will feature more than 200 arts and crafts exhibits, live music and a parade on Saturday morning.