Beat Chef Burke Cooking Competition
and 3-Course Dinner
Saturday, May 8, 2025
in the Private Dining Room
A relaxing, social dinner for you.
A heated, yet friendly, competition between Chef David Burke and our up-and-coming guest chefs!
$100 per person (plus tax and tip)
Competition 2:
Chef David Burke vs Chef François Kwaku-Dongo (Iron Chef America)
Seating at 630pm
greeting with charcuterie and hors d’oeuvres
7pm Seated Dinner
The Competition begins and you might be selected as a judge!
A panel of 2 randomly selected Audience Members and Chef Milton will judge the cooking competition as you dine.
Red Horse fires up pre-dinner snacks served with a signature cocktail, as Chef David Burke competes against challenger Chef Francois in a friendly cooking competition. Witness first hand the chefs’ creativity as they devise dishes on the spot highlighting flavor profiles and presentation of the mystery ingredient.
1st Cook Off
7pm Appetizer
730pm Second Cook Off and Judging
8pm Main Course
8:45 Dessert Petit Fours Assortment
9-930pm Q & A + photo time!
Chef François Kwaku-Dongo
(Iron Chef America)
Mixing Exotic Spices and Flavors from Around the World.
secret weapon: Japanese cuisine
The Beat Burke Competition heats up this May! Excited for the Beat Burke challenge, globetrotting Executive Chef François Kwaku-Dongo, now at David Burke Tavern, NYC and Red Horse by David Burke, White Plains, grew up in the Côte d’Ivoire, traveled to Japan and France and has worked on East and West Coast.
After lighting it up at top restaurants in Manhattan, Chicago, and San Francisco, Francois Kwaku-Dongo became enthralled with the West Coast and was named Executive Chef at Wolfgang Puck’s famed Spago restaurant in Los Angeles. Moving back to the green pastures of Fairfield County, Connecticut on the Easter Coast, François brought his international flavors to Executive Chef at The Redding Country Club and L’Escale on Greenwich Harbor in Connecticut. Executive Chef Francois Kwaku-Dongo has been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wine Spectator and Gourmet Magazine, has trained with some of the best chefs in France, and comes with a secret weapon: Japanese cuisine.
Chef François Kwaku-Dongo blends experiences from around the world with local, quintessential New York flair. His food mixes exotic flavors and spices, traditional French culinary technique, and top-quality ingredients. “My mother influences my cooking in the spices that I use. She used to cook with curry, cumin, and a lot of bold flavors. With the food that I do, most of the sauces are influenced by what I learned from Wolfgang and his French technique mixed with the bold flavors that I learned from my mother.”
How will Chef Burke respond to such spicy competition? Do not miss this!
