Local chefs and doctors face-off in pumpkin carving contest

Spectators gathered at the entrance to the Pepper Place Market on Oct. 29 as local chefs and doctors polished up their pumpkins and laid out their cutting tools for the contest. The competitors were given 30 minutes to carve up their pumpkins.

On the doctors' side, orthopedic surgeons Robert Wolf and Lloyd Johnson of Brookwood Baptist Health used their surgical skills to cut out the faces while being assisted by their children in the design. Dr. Lloyd Johnson created a candy-decorated pumpkin while Dr. Robert Wolf's carving was inspired by the Minions movie.

Meanwhile, the chefs put their knife skills to work by coming up with their own creative designs. Chef Chris Hastings, owner of Oven Bird, relied on his children for creative input while Chef Franklin Biggs, co-founder of the Pepper Place Market and chef instructor at Sur La Table, took a more nonconventional approach by making a "pumpkin Pi."

In the end though, it was Nick Hartmann, founder of Ice by Design, who won the competition with his witch-faced pumpkin, featuring stuffed olive eyes, pumpkin seed teeth and a large pumpkin nose.