Golden Glove Award for Best Tasting Food Highlights Real Mex Sweep
A culinary team from El Torito led Real Mex Restaurants to a dominating victory at the 2016 Western Food Expo’s “Culinary Clash” cooking competition. Team Real Mex won 5 of 12 awards at the 2016 Culinary Clash (Battle of Los Angeles), including the coveted Golden Glove Award for best tasting food, the Golden Plate Award for best presentation, and the Best Bite Award for the best appetizer.
El Torito team members Hugo Escobedo and Ramon Aguilar teamed up with student chef Jacob Runfola to take on other notable LA Restaurants, such as Urban Plates, Specialty Restaurant Group, and Chart House, in a no-holds-barred culinary competition held Sunday afternoon at the LA Convention Center. The team from Real Mex Restaurants was the most decorated of the ten competing restaurant groups and swept all of the major culinary categories. Over 20 Real Mex Restaurant enthusiastic team members showed up to cheer on the Real Mex Team.
“The culinary team at Real Mex Restaurants is top-notch,” said Bryan Lockwood, Chief Executive Officer of Real Mex Restaurants. “Hugo, Ramon, and Jacob did an amazing job creating dishes that wowed the judges.”
The team prepared an amuse bouche of bacon-wrapped dates with chorizo cream cheese filling and a main dish of a banana leaf stuffed with chicken, manchego cheese, and a sauce made with a grapefruit, lime juice, and oranges.
Headquartered in Cypress, California, Real Mex Restaurants is the largest full-service, casual dining Mexican restaurant chain operator in the United States with more than 100 company-owned and operated restaurants, as well as 13 franchised locations. Real Mex brands include El Torito, Acapulco Mexican Restaurants, Chevys Fresh Mex, El Torito Grill, Pink Taco on the Sunset Strip, Las Brisas Restaurant in Laguna Beach, Calif., Sinigual Restaurant in New York City, El Paso Cantina in Torrance, Calif., and Who Song and Larry’s Cal-Mex Cantina in Orange, Calif. The roots of the Southern California-based company stretch back to 1954 when the El Torito restaurant was launched. For more information, please visit www.realmexrestaurants.com.
