Ready to meet a few of the Chef teams competing this year in Pensacola Eggfest?
Some are new to the big green scene, but our first introductory profile is definitely not one of them.
Chef James Fontaine is an EggFest OG, having competed in the very first Pensacola EggFest in 2013 while serving as Sous Chef at Margaritaville.
“When I was a Sous Chef at Margaritaville in 2013, we served up pork belly in the first event,” Fontaine said.
And he’s been cooking competitively ever since.
Fontaine has several awards under his belt, including a win in the ARC Crab Cake competition—an event where he inherited the tradition of creating a new crab cake recipe each year.
“I do a new recipe each year and if we win, it replaces the current one on our menu at Azalea Trace.”
Those are some lucky residents.
If you don’t immediately think “restaurant” when you hear Azalea Trace, you might after learning that Fontaine oversees a scratch kitchen serving approximately 700 meals a day to the community’s roughly 500 residents.
“Basically, I’m a guest chef in the home of 500 people,” he said. “It’s a true restaurant and one of the few scratch kitchens still around.”
And now, that kitchen is bringing its creativity back to Pensacola EggFest on November 15, 2026.
Meet the Team: Azalea Trace
Azalea Trace placed 3rd in Judges Choice at Pensacola Eggfest in 2025.The name: Azalea Trace is a retirement community in Pensacola named for the beautiful azaleas throughout the property—and the sense of tradition, community and Southern hospitality that defines the campus.
The dish: Think crab cake inspiration with an EggFest twist.
The team will be serving Krab Rangoon Jalapeño Poppers with Balsamic BBQ, Carolina Gold Sauce and NYC Cart Sauce.
And there’s a little hardware behind that recipe inspiration: Azalea Trace’s crab cake recently took first place People’s Choice and third place Judges’ Choice.
So they have receipts.
Most likely to get the team in trouble: Deondre Black. Not because he would actually cause trouble, but because there’s a pretty good chance he could convince everyone that “one more sample” is simply a necessary part of quality control.
We respect the commitment to research.
The final 10 minutes before the judges arrive: Classic rock is playing. Everyone is moving with purpose. And there is one person nobody should probably talk to, which would be the chef.
Fontaine is checking the final seasoning for the third time. Then he asks, “Are we ready to Rock n Roll?!”
Greatest cooking failure: Fontaine admits that sometimes the biggest mistake is making things harder than they need to be.
“Overthinking a simple dish and turning it into something far more complicated than it needed to be.”
His solution is to remember the KISS method when developing a new recipe: Keep it simple, stupid.
A lesson that applies in the kitchen, and probably just about everywhere else.
If the Big Green Egg could file a complaint: “I like to grill with high heat.”
Apparently, the Egg might have some concerns about that and its complaint would be: “Why do I need to run so hot?!”
Why cook at Pensacola EggFest? For Fontaine, it’s about more than competition.
“It’s one of the most organized events we’ve attended,” he said. “The best thing about cooking at Pensacola EggFest is the opportunity to share your passion, meet great people, and support a worthy cause.”
And the trash talk? Azalea Trace respects every team in the field. But they’re also planning to make the judges work very hard before deciding anyone is finishing ahead of them. Fontaine considers that fair warning.
Find Them Beyond EggFest
You can find Chef James Fontaine and the Azalea Trace team at Azalea Trace in Pensacola, where they are busy serving residents 700 meals or more every day.
As a nonprofit senior living community, Azalea Trace supports programs and events that enrich the lives of older adults and strengthen the local community.
We’re glad Pensacola EggFest is one of the places they choose to bring that passion for food, community, and a little friendly competition.
James Fontaine, CDM, CFPP
Executive Chef, Azalea Trace
Welcome back to EggFest, Chef James and Team Azalea Trace!
Jerold Hall, Co-founder, Pensacola Eggfest
Pensacoal Eggfest Tickets: https://bit.ly/PensacolaEggfest2026
Pensacola EggFest will take place Sunday, November 15, 2026, at Hadji Temple 800 W 9 Mile Rd, Pensacola, FL 32534. The event hosts BBQ teams and backyard cooks from all over the United States who share two things: a love of cooking and the joy of giving back to their communities. Since 2013, over $1,000,000 has been donated to local charities from this celebration of BBQ.
