In the fall of 1781 General George Washington and General Comte de Rochambeau led a combined force of Colonial and French troops to lay siege to the British Army at Yorktown. Within a few days British General Lord Cornwallis and nearly 9,000 troops surrendered. This proved to be the decisive battle of the American Revolution.

In celebration of this historic anniversary, the Watermen’s Museum in Yorktown created a new battle of its own. It was a battle of the chefs and it proved to be a very successful part of the Yorktown Maritime Heritage Festival. So successful was it that the museum’s president and event chairman, Steve Ormsby, said to watch for it again next year.

At noon the cooking battlefield near the museum’s mock colonial gunboat and sloop hulls began. Chef E (Edwin Patrick) and sous chef Billy Ayers, representing the America/French forces, battled Chef K (Kim Franklin), Chef Jared Puterbaugh and Megan Richardson, representing the English/Hessian tro...