The first Taste of the Teche was such a success, it has moved to the Cade Community Center this year.

Local cooks will be able to see how their favorite dishes rank according to the taste buds of New Iberia gourmets during The Daily Iberian event on Wednesday, Oct. 26 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Sponsored by the popular spice, herb and seasoning company Cajun 180, the event this Wednesday will pit local chefs against each other to see who has the ultimate dish. Winners of the event will have their recipes featured in The Daily Iberian’s annual cookbook.

Tickets are still available on the Daily Iberian website (click HERE) stop in the office or email karla.borde@daily-iberian.com for the event at 1688 Smede Highway in Saint Martinville.

The public will be able to purchase a general admission ticket for $15, which will allow you to sample some of the best food in Cajun country. A cash bar and music will also be part of the fun.

For the second year, the event has the perfect MC, Gerald Gruenig, of KLFY News 10. He has been for more than 300 locally-owned restaurants during the show Acadiana Eats and his morning show, Passé Partout.

In October of 2015, Gerald started a segment that airs every Thursday ONLY on KLFY News 10 called Acadiana Eats. Since then, Gerald has been to more than 300 locally-owned restaurants in the Acadiana area.

When asked what his favorite dish was from Taste of the Teche last year, Daily Iberian Publisher Michael Messerly said, “That’s like asking me to name my favorite child, can’t be done, I loved it all.”

Messerly said what made the event unique last year was, “We mix in ‘amateur’ cooks with restaurants and caterers so we get a wide variety of great food from great cooks with diverse backgrounds. There’s also a lot of great food and great conversation between the cooks and the audience.”

Living around the country, Messerly admitted, “Now I know, there’s no better cooking than here in Louisiana. Last year, I had just moved here so it was a great way to meet a lot of great people who were going to be my neighbors and partners in crime, so to speak. Now I just want to eat more food than I was able to consume last year. There was so much and it was all so good that I couldn’t make it to them all. It’s Louisiana so whenever you get people together with food and drinks it’s going to be a party!”

Daily Iberian General Manager Shanna Dickens said the event was created as a way to maintain The Daily Iberian’s annual cookbook tradition.

“Sourcing content for our annual cookbook has become more challenging because you’re going up against all of the recipe outlets that are so popular on social media,” Dickens said. “But it’s such a great tradition that we decided to make a few changes to increase interest.”

The cookbook edition will be inserted in the Thanksgiving edition, the most popular issue of the year, Dickens said.

“We also felt like it was time to have an event tied to the cookbook so that we could celebrate all of the culinary talent we have in the Teche area. The recipes of the entries will be published in the cookbook notating the winning dishes,” Dickens said.

Messerly added, “Anyone looking for a party and a full stomach needs to just go to our home page on thedailyiberian.com and find the banner right in the middle of the page, click on the banner and buy some tickets. It is just $15 a ticket and you’re guaranteed to leave with a full belly.”