Fresno group holds cooking competition in hopes of bringing new food to city

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Novice chefs hoping to open restaurants on Blackstone Avenue in Fresno put their cooking to the test.

The inaugural Multicultural Cooking Expo hosted seven local chefs who made soups from cultures around the world.

Grassroots group Better Blackstone is hoping the exposure will bring more business to the main thoroughfare. They've also been conducting surveys and organizing focus groups to see what kind of restaurants and businesses are needed on Blackstone Avenue.

"Today really is about elevating cooks that want to have restaurants or want to do that work professionally and here they can taste seven soups they've never tasted before in their life and actually evaluate them as to whether they'd buy them in a restaurant or not," Keith Bergthold with the Fresno Metro Ministry said.

On April 2 at Manchester Center, they'll have another group of cooks test.