Entrée:
Milk Braised Pork over sage parmesan polenta, with sautéed romaine and a pine nut gremolata.
Tie-3rd Place Dessert:
English Sticky Toffee Pudding.
Mark Davis got his start in the field while at college in North Carolina: serving, bartending, and cooking at various casual dining restaurants. In the early 90’s, he started full-time as a cook at Grady’s. That experience was formative, developing the culinary interests he has today.
Davis enjoys the Top Chefs competition, noting that “it’s always fun to meet people who have kind of given their life to a certain degree to preparing food.” Davis revels in the evolution of taste in Knoxville cuisine: “There is in my opinion an improvement in the style and types of foods that Knoxvillians are willing to try now. We’ve evolved from meat and potatoes to trying many different types of dishes in different settings.”
Favorite Food to Eat: “Trying new pasta dishes is one of my favorite things to do. Any city that I go to that has a Little Italy or a well-known Italian place, I’ll always try it just to experience real, authentic Italian.”
Favorite Food to Prepare: “I enjoy working with red meat. It could be short ribs, it could different cuts of red meat that are new and exciting, it could be developing sauces that go with various cuts, or it could be different seasonings or rubs. I’m usually doing that because it’s always a fan favorite.”