AUGUSTA  — Maine’s reigning lobster chef of the year is going to Louisiana for a national seafood cooking competition.

Mackenzie Arrington has been appointed by Gov. John Baldacci to represent Maine in the Great American Seafood Cook-off in New Orleans on Aug. 7. The event has been called the Super Bowl of seafood competitions.

Arrington in October won the Maine Lobster Chef of the Year competition.

For the New Orleans event, Arrington will be assisted by his mother, Margaret Salt McLellan, herself a former state lobster chef of the year who represented Maine in the 2008 and 2009 Great American Seafood Cook-offs.