Bowdoin College chef wins breakfast cook-off that launches Restaurant Week

This Maine Crab Breakfast Flatbread won first place Friday in the 2020 Incredible Breakfast Cook-Off. Photo by Meredith Goad

Chef Isaac Aldrich, a culinary manager at Bowdoin College, won the 2020 Incredible Breakfast Cook-Off Friday at Sea Dog Brewing Co. in South Portland.

Aldrich’s winning entry was Maine Crab Breakfast Flatbread: fresh Maine crabmeat atop naan flatbread with cream cheese–egg sauce, applewood-smoked bacon, sweet red peppers and a candied jalapeno slice. Aldrich also won the event in 2016.

The sold-out cook-off marks the launch of Maine Restaurant Week; other activities begins Sunday and run through March 12. This is the 11th year of the popular event, in which breakfast lovers get to sample food made by nine chefs and a donut maker, then vote on their favorites. This year people drove from as far away as Lancaster, Pennsylvania to attend.

Chef Bo Byrne’s Honey Butter Beignet Croissant, served with a quail egg, took second place. Photo by Meredith Goad

Second place went to Chef Bo Byrne from the Harraseeket Inn in Freeport for his Honey Butter Beignet Croissant with creme, brie, avocado and quail egg.

The chefs from Verbena in South Portland and the Pilot House at the Sebasco Harbor Resort tied for third.

Over the past decade, the cook-off has raised more than $50,000 for Preble Street, a local social services agency.

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