Two brothers, both trained chefs. Who’s the best at their chosen profession?

“That’s been a question I’ve been asked a lot,” said Eric Peterson, owner of the Fresh Palate.

For now it’s a toss up, but a friendly cooking challenge between the two will soon give one of them bragging rights. Patterned after a reality cooking television series called Knife Fight, the brothers have planned a public culinary competition for Thursday from 9-11 p.m. at the Center Building.

“He’s going down. It’s going to be a lot of fun,” said Kevin Peterson, who prepares food directly across the street from his older brother as the chef at As You Wish.

“I hope I don’t make him cry,” said Eric by way of a comeback. He also added that no matter who wins, they both will maintain their pride in what they do.

How Thursday’s competition works is that they have rounded up five judges who will provide a mystery ingredient from each of five categories – protein, grain, vegetable, sweets and condiment – and then prepare three dishes. The actual cooking will be done in the Fresh Palate kitchen where the two first will have 15 minutes to figure out the three courses they want to make with the mystery ingredients, plus round up any kitchen utensils or pots/pans they need and collect pantry items from what’s already on hand at the restaurant.

Over the next hour and 45 minutes, they will then cook up a storm.

“Neither of us have done anything like this before,” Kevin said. “We’re both pretty confident. We just hope we don’t draw a blank on what to make when we have a ton of people watching us.”

Tickets to the event, at $15 per person, include appetizers and a cash bar. They’ve already sold more than 100, but a number of tickets still remain available at the Fresh Palate and can be purchased today between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. and Thursday anytime prior to the competition.

The pair have talked about doing an event like this for awhile and hope it’s just the beginning. According to Eric, the original Knife Fight started out as an underground movement in Los Angeles where chefs would throw down challenges in the hours after their restaurants closed for the night. Word leaked out, the concept became popular and ultimately it turned into a television series.

“It leaked out how cool it was,” Eric said. “It was for restaurant owners who just wanted to have a little fun outside of cooking every day. My big hope is to dual Kevin for the first time, and hopefully create some hype. We’ll probably do a rematch later and then eventually challenge other restaurants in the area or even outside the area like in Traverse City.”

Eric received his culinary training in Portland, Ore., then spent several years working at topnotch restaurants in Hawaii, San Francisco and Portland. At that time, the farm to table movement was big on the West Coast but hadn’t yet made it’s way to Northeast Michigan. He decided to move back to his hometown of Alpena and try to introduce the local community to some fresh dishes based on farm to table ingredients.

“I was hoping Alpena would accept it, and they have supported it quite well,” said Eric, who has operated a catering business for the past 15 years and Fresh Palate for the past nine. “Here we are nine years later. Cheers to Alpena.”

Kevin trained at Johnson Wales University in Colorado, then stayed three years in state there as a chef and seven more at a restaurant in Chicago. After he and his wife had three children, they too made the decision to move back home.

“We enjoyed the way we grew up here, and wanted that for our kids,” Kevin said.

Eight years separate the two siblings in age, but both remember starting out washing dishes at the exact same age, 15, and at the same place, The Courtyard. Kevin credits his older brother with first teaching him how to cook.

For Thursday’s cooking competition, they plan to open up the Fresh Palate kitchen area so guests can wander through and observe them at work. Even though they will faceoff at the event, ordinarily they work well together and are hoping the concept of the competition will catch on and serve as another reason to draw visitors to Alpena.

“Kevin and I both are trying to put Alpena on the map with the foodies,” Eric said.

In the meantime, they’re ready to throw down for their first ever Knife Fight.

“We’re very excited to do this for the first time,” Kevin said, although he couldn’t help but also point out that his brother picked the judges and the competition is taking place in his restaurant, so there’s a little bit of home court advantage to be had.