Belly Up Heavy metal chefs and pot-banging fun

If this weekend’s booze and finger-food cattle-call at the Madison Food & Wine Show is too much excess for your palate, head over to Monona Terrace on Oct. 27 to take part in the more heart-friendly sin of food voyeurism. Doors open for the somewhat arbitrarily named Heavy Metal Chef Contest at 5 p.m. for hors d'oeuvres, a cash bar, and the dueling piano sounds of Piano Fondue (perhaps in Iron Maiden-style harmonies for the occasion?), then a half-hour later, seven chefs from Monona Catering will commence an Iron Chef-style cook-off. Each chef will be handed a grocery bag of secret ingredients, then they’ll have one hour to create a starter dish and entrée. Local chef Rafe Montello will emcee the proceedings, and the three celebrity judges of Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, Isthmus food writer Raphael Kadushin, and NBC’s Christine Bellport will select the champion cook. After the top chef is announced, attendees will get to gorge on free cake and coffee while chatting up the presumably exhausted participants. It’s not all culinary spectacle, though: All proceeds from the $25 ($20 advance) tickets will go towards a charity of the winner’s choice from the Dane County and City of Madison’s Combined Campaign.

Fatsometer: 4. While the secret dishes won’t be available for tasting, the cake and hors d'oeuvres will provide plenty of grazing opportunities.