Can food be entertaining? Sure, just ask the folks at Food Network.

That's where Downtown Waterfront Market got its most recent idea, a popular show called "Dinner Impossible." For Elizabeth City folks, however, we'll call it "Market Impossible."

File photo (ENLARGE)

Andy Montero, owner of Montero's Restaurant, will be the first chef to take up the 'Market Impossible' challenge this Saturday at the Downtown Waterfront Market in Elizabeth City. Montero will be give five minutes to shop and less than one hour to create a culinary masterpiece with his limited supplies.

The premise of the show is to give a chef near-impossible conditions and obstacles to overcome in order to create a meal in record time. Locally, market coordinator Denise Richards says a chef will have five minutes to gather produce from any one of six produce vendors at the farmer's market this Saturday, and then less than an hour to create a meal on a stage, for vendors and market-goers to see.

This is the first go at "Market Impossible," with plans to do it monthly. To kick it off, Richards recruited well-known restaurateur and chef Andy Montero and his sous chef Brandon Clark for the challenge.

"They keep trying to cut me down to less and less basic things I want to bring," says Montero, laughing about the limitations placed on him for the challenge.

The idea is to limit Montero and Clark as to what they can bring to the challenge; you know, you can't have a container of sauce on hand to gussy up a pan of sauteed squash. At first, Montero thought he would have a chance to bring some of his personal cooking equipment like burners and the like, but even that has been scaled down and forbidden.

"They want me to be as empty-handed as I can be," he says.

Montero says he had hoped he could bring some basic spices and even a few vegetables to help his cause. But he suspects he'll likely be left with only his knives and his wits.

Wits will be helpful since Montero hasn't had the opportunity to visit the market since it first opened.

"I know some of the vendors will be the same but it's a shot in the dark," he says.

He does know, however, what's in season so that gives him an idea before hand what he might be able to conjure. However, the market, he says, will be providing the protein (beef, poultry or fish) so that will have to be a surprise.

Montero says the challenge is not unlike how he and Clark prepare specials in the restaurant. Many of Montero's specials are planned early in the morning based on what is available in the restaurant's stores.

The difference here, however, is that he has less than one hour to complete the task.

"We're going to try to produce as much as we possibly can," he says, "and to try and feed at least one person from each vendor tent since we're utilizing their product."

The market opens at Mariners' Wharf in downtown Elizabeth City at 8 a.m. and runs to 1 p.m. The "Market Impossible" challenge will begin at 9:30 a.m.

In September, "Market Impossible" will feature Coasters chef Andy Lewis.

For more information on the Downtown Waterfront Market call 252-338-0169.