Chef Steve Richards of The World is Mine Oyster in Boothbay Harbor is the 2014 Maine Lobster Chef of the Year.

Richards, who grew up in Wiscasset, won the competition at Portland’s Harvest on the Harbor festival on Friday, Oct. 24.

Eleven chefs from some of the finest eateries in Maine competed for the coveted title.

Among the eleven from all over Maine, three hailed from the Boothbay region.

The two winning chefs at Boothbay's annual Claw Down, Dwayne Whitelocke from Rocktide, and Richards, received invitations to enter the competition. Margaret Salt McLellan, chef/caterer at Water’s Edge Banquet Center in Edgecomb, who entered her application at the last minute, was selected too.

McLellan won the state-wide title in 2008, and her son, Mackenzie Arrington was the winner in 2009, and Peoples' Choice winner in 2012.

“I was a little burnt out on cooking competitions, but decided to enter the Claw Down event this year,” she said in a September interview. “Then I got the bug again.”

Richards’ dish was a lobster, chestnut and mascarpone deep fried polenta topped with a 24-hour cold smoked lobster claw, fig gastrique and crispy fried pancetta, drizzled with lobster demi glaze and dusted with pumpkin powder and volcanic rock salt.

Surprisingly, all the gourmet ingredients didn’t overshadow the most important one, lobster.

“I’m really proud of Steve,” Mine Oyster owner Ralph Smith said Friday afternoon. “We pulled off an amazing bite.”

Richards has been the executive chef at Mine Oyster since its inception in 2011.

“After leaving another restaurant in town, I approached Ralph (Smith) and said, 'I want to come to work for you,’” Richards said in a September interview. He was hired on the spot.

In September, Richards won People’s Choice award in the Boothbay region’s Claw Down, while his fellow Claw Down competitor Whitelocke took home the Judges’ Choice Award.

Richards credits Mine Oyster owners Ralph and Elena Smith with his big win at the Claw Down event on Sept. 18. He was feeling positive about the Lobster Chef of the Year event afterwards. “It will be a huge thing for the restaurant if we can win Maine Lobster Chef of the Year,” he said after Claw Down. “That would be my thanks to them.”

He also gave a lot of credit to Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce’s Cherie Scott.

“She did such an amazing job with our Claw Down that she was approached by the Lobster Chef event’s organizers for advice,” Richards said. “She negotiated with them saying she’d help if her two winners from Claw Down could be contestants in the Lobster Chef of the Year event.

“If it weren’t for Cherie, we may not have been in the contest.”

On Saturday morning Richards reflected on the evening in Portland.

“To be honest I didn’t think I nailed that lobster bite,” he said. “If I make it again I would make some changes to it.”

Apparently the judges and foodies who voted on their winning choice thought it was fine just as it was.

Richards’ dramatic display, with a fall theme, was a reflection of how he hoped his dish would come across.

“The dish was a celebration of fall. I went to Amazon for the first time in my life and ordered stuff for the display. That morning we took everything out of the boxes and started building the set. I even had candles that smelled like apples and cranberries.”

He said he had so much fun setting up his display he lost track of time when it came to preparing his lobster bites.

“I only had about 40 minutes to worry about food.”

Presented by the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative, the midday affair ran according to schedule, with the chefs preparing their lobster dishes for the four judges, and smaller “bites” for the crowd of 200 lucky foodies, who paid $75 each for the sold out event, where they sampled some of the choicest lobster dishes in Maine culinary cuisine.

With chef and former winner, Kerry Altiero, from Café Miranda in Rockland officiating, guests were asked to vote alongside the professional judges.

Richards said if he could have voted he would have voted for Rocktide’s Dwayne Whitelocke, whose dish was a Rocktide signature popover with lobster, a blueberry cognac jam, mousseline sauce, and three cheese crumble.

“Dwayne had a beautiful dish. His was my favorite. I loved the way his plate looked, and I really thought he was going to win. Plus Dwayne is a sweetheart. I’m not a sweetheart.”