Welcome to Downtown Cambridge, we are glad you have chosen to join us for the fourteenth year of our signature event – Taste of Cambridge. On the Second Saturday of July every year, we welcome thousands of locals and visitors to our downtown to celebrate our waterfront heritage, the working watermen who helped build this city, and the collaboration of them with our blossoming culinary scene.
There is no denying that Taste of Cambridge is now a significant community showcase event and we use it to introduce approximately one thousand visitors to the City and the downtown district. In previous years, we welcomed visitors from more than 150 separate zip codes, even one from Beijing, China.
This year, Taste of Cambridge will include several lively contests. An exciting new addition to this year’s event is the Amateur Crab-Picking Contest, followed by a returning favorite, the Professional Crab-Picking Contest. These contests will take place at the Muir Street Stage. The first contest will begin at 7:15, immediately followed by the second contest at around 7:30. If you would like to participate in the Amateur Crab-Picking Contest, you can sign up at the information tent which will be located at the intersection of Gay Street and Race Street.
The Crab Cook-Off is always an enjoyable event at Taste of Cambridge, and this year’s categories include crabcake/ball, crab soup, crab dip, and crab specialty. This year will also feature an interesting addition to the Crab Cook-Off, a separate category called the Snakehead Fish entry.
Taste of Cambridge will host a panel of three judge’s including Dorchester County native Kevin Scott, and Chesapeake culinary cookbook and television personality John Shields. The third judge is Chef Mary Kiernan, now a professor at Syracuse University, who owned and operated Elm Street Café and Catering in Cortland, NY and worked as catering manager of the Carrier Dome – a 48,000 seat-sporting complex.
The judge’s panel make up a blind tasting of each dish and award a set of Judge’s Choice winner in each category. Judges are not told where each dish comes from and select their favorite in each category based on scoring of flavor, presentation, and more.
The street festival is free, but you must have a ticket to taste all the delicious dishes. Ticket holders redeem their ticket on the day of the event for a special tasting ballot. Tasters must taste, compare, and vote for their favorite in each category. The ballots are then tallied up following the event and winners are awarded People’s Choice awards in each dish category.
Tickets to Taste of Cambridge are $30 in advance or $35 at the door, based on availability. Tickets normally sell out on the day of the event and organizers recommend purchasing tickets in advance.
We love sharing our progress, which is why we invite the world to Taste of Cambridge. It’s an exciting time to be a part of Cambridge, the kind of place where ideas and opportunities come to life. We want to thank all of the businesses, sponsorship partners, and volunteers involved who have worked with us to welcome the event each year to Poplar and Race Streets.
Click here for more information about participants, how to buy tickets, and other details about Taste of Cambridge, or call Cambridge Main Street at 443-477-0843.
