ABOUT THE MISSISSIPPI SEAFOOD COOK-OFF
This premier cooking competition was created by Mississippi Seafood Marketing to promote the domestic, fresh, sustainable seafood industry located on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The state’s most talented chefs compete for the title of king or queen of Mississippi Seafood, as they prepare their signatures dishes in front of a live audience. Then, a panel of judges score each chef. Chefs will be judged on characteristics such as presentation, creativity, composition, craftsmanship and flavor.
The winner of our state cook-off will represent Mississippi in August at the Great American Seafood Cook-Off in New Orleans, Louisiana.,as they compete against chefs throughout the country for the national seafood crown.
AN EVENT YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS
Mississippi Seafood Marketing has partnered with the Gulfport Chamber of Commerce’s annual tasting event, Taste, Rattle & Roll. Together, we will host the 13th Annual Mississippi Seafood Cook-off. You’ll have the opportunity to view Mississippi’s top chefs compete for the seafood crown and sample local food from more than 25 of Gulfport’s best restaurants. Enjoy an evening outdoors, set around the dancing fountains of Centennial Plaza.
Thursday, May 2, 2024 | 5 – 8 p.m.
Centennial Plaza
200 Beach Boulevard | Gulfport, MS
Must be 21 or older to attend.
2024 Queen OF Mississippi Seafood
Chef Erika Lipe, Sola, Oxford, Mississippi
Chef Erika Lipe is the first female to win the Mississippi Seafood Cook-off and represent our great state at the national competition, Great American Seafood Cook-off, in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 3, 2024.
She was born into a family passionate about cuisine and exploring the world through flavor. As a girl, Erika was influenced strongly by traveling and learning about the gulf coast through art, music, and food, and perhaps most applicably as a young line cook in New Orleans. Like many artists, Erika has naturally been drawn to the water, and also spent some time cooking professionally along the Golden Isles of Georgia, including a stint in the Grand Dining Room at The Jekyll Island Club Resort. A native Mississippian, Erika has called Oxford home for the last 17 years, where she is consistently voted “Favorite Chef” and “Best Boss” by her peers and coworkers for the work at her restaurant SoLa, which opened in 2014.
Though her deep-rooted southern charm and reverence for food traditions are based here at home, Erika also enjoys what she refers to as “Third-Culture” cooking: celebrating the bold influence of our immigrant ancestors and neighbors on local cuisine, especially as it relates to the geographic parallels found between the farming and fishing industries of Mississippi and around the world.