About

Well, not really! 

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Bite Club started in 2017 after Shawn Niles, aka The Fat Pastor was featured on MasterChef Season 8. Looking for a way to further the efforts of their free business and culinary school for at-risk students in Eastern Washington, Shawn and his friends thought it would be fun to start a "hobby" fine dining club. Bite Club was born in August of 2017, and quickly began to grow as the first legal underground dining club in the country. 

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As their reputation began to spread, more opportunities opened up, and soon Shawn found himself qualifying for and eventually competing at the World Food Championships. The owner and CEO, Mike McCloud, heard about Bite Club and reached out to discuss what it might look like to form a partnership merging the concept of fine dining and global food sport. After a couple years of planning, brainstorming and strategizing, Bite Club Throw Downs were formed in 2021. 

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When not working on Bite Club dining and ThrowDown events, you'll find Shawn serving at private events around Yakima, and teaching at his culinary & business school Urban Kitchen, or speaking at motivational and fundraising events.