Each year at the Bite of Bend, a local "Iron Chef" contest is held, featuring—obviously—local chefs from some of the fine dining establishments in the area. I get a big kick out of this (though I’ve never actually watched an entire match), so naturally I got excited when I saw this year’s Iron Chef contestants show up on the ad HOC blog.

1st round Saturday 12:00pm
Jeremy Baumgartner (Fireside Red) vs. David Berger (Pleidies at Five Pine)

2nd round Saturday 1:30pm
Tim Garling (Jackalope Grill) vs. John Nelson (Brasada Ranch Blue Olive)

3rd round Saturday 3:00
Victor Sommo (Volo) vs. Jeff Hunt & Rich Hall (Marz Bistro)

4th round Saturday 5:00
Johnathan Bohn (Decoy Bar and Grill) vs. David Touvell (Chow)

Those are the Saturday match-ups. On Sunday, the winners from each round will face off against each other, and then the Final Battle™ will feature the overall winner against the 2007 champion, TR McCrystal of Jen’s Garden. Nice.

The Bite of Bend is taking place June 21st and 22nd.

(We’ll actually be missing it.)

Update: Jeremy Baumgartner is the Fireside Red chef, not Terri Gilmore.