girl scouts of the colonial coast
More than 300 guests packed the Sheraton Norfolk
Waterside hotel to celebrate the tenth annual Samoa Soiree on March 17. Chefs
from restaurants and catering companies competed to walk away with awards for best
savory or best dessert.
Hosted by Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast, this
annual event raises funds to support Girl Scouting in our area.
This year, Chef
Kyle Fowlkes from the Cyprus Grille at Embassy Suites Hampton won the
Judges' Best in Presentation Award and the People’s Choice Award for Best
Savory. His savory dish was gnocchi and veal topped with spinach and a cherry cream
sauce. He used the Girl Scout Do-si-Dos Cookie and Girl Scout Toffee-tastic
Cookie as magical ingredients! Chef Chris McLeod from The Dirty Buffalo won the
People’s Choice for Best Dessert for his Mini Samoa Pudding Cake. His recipe was even published in Coastal Virginia Magazine. All the chefs
used a Girl Scout Cookie variety as a key ingredient in their creation.
Best Dessert: Handsome Biscuit, Flan with Thin Mints and a
touch of Wildflower Honey
Best Savory: Mixxer’s Kitchen, Lemony fried crab cake
with Savannah Smiles Cookie
Best Presentation: Cyprus Grille, Sous Vide
Veal with Toffee-tastic and Do-si-Dos Cookies
Most Creative Use of a Girl Scout Cookie: Spirit Cruises, Thai
Veggie Bite
People’s Choice for Best Dessert: The Dirty Buffalo, Mini
Samoa pudding cake made with Thin Mint Cookie
People’s Choice for Best Savory: Cyprus Grille, Sous Vide
Veal
Best in Show: Sysco of Hampton Roads, Pork Belly Girl
Scout Do-si-Do Cookie
The culinary delights were judged by local
celebrities and foodies, including Patrick Evans-Hylton, publisher of Virginia
Eats + Drinks Magazine; Grace Silipigni, online content editor of Coastal
Virginia Magazine; Don London, vice president of operations at Entercom
Communications Corporation; Carolyn Pittman with Newport News Shipbuilding;
Toiya Sosa with GEICO; Xerxes Nabong, Yelp community director; Ashley Smith,
13News Now anchor and Peggy Sijswerda, editor and publisher of Tidewater Family
Magazine and Tidewater Women Magazine.
This year’s participating restaurants included:
Cyprus Grille at Embassy Suites Hampton, Handsome Biscuit, Hilton Norfolk The Main, II Giardino
Ristorante, Mixxer’s Kitchen, RJ’s Café at the Salvation Army Kroc Center, Sheraton Norfolk Waterside, The Dirty Buffalo, The Skinny
Dip Frozen Yogurt Bar, Spirit Cruises and Sysco Hampton Roads.
The event was generously sponsored by GEICO,
Enspyr, Wall, Einhorn & Chernitzer P.C. and Newport News Shipbuilding. Many
thanks to our media partners who supported the event and helped us spread the
word about this unique event: 2WD 101.3, 13News Now, Coastal Virginia
Magazine, Tidewater Women Magazine, VEER Magazine, Yelp and Virginia
Eats + Drinks.
To view more photos, click here.
