What do you get when you put an Iron Chef type of competition where 6 chefs from different local restaurants each have 45 minutes to prepare 3 courses, and being judged on taste, presentation, and the ability to incorporate 5 “mystery” ingredients into their dishes: the 2009 Celebrity Chef Challenge in Sacramento.  Located in Sacramento’s California Automobile Museum, and with a supporting cast of about 65 different vendors including local bbq legend JR’s Texas BBQ, Black Sheep Winery, Cecchetti Olive Oils, Hoppy Brewing Company, and local brewing giant Sierra Nevada, this event pulled out all of the stops and created a wonderful atmosphere celebrating Sacramento’s local culinary scene.

just a few of the sweet rides that surrounded the vendor areas

Although the festivities were wonderful, and the vendors were all spectacular, serving up great food and drink, I was there for the competition, and was lucky enough to be one of 6 judges for the event!  The chefs came out blazing, cooking two at a time, and were given a list of 5 mystery ingredients right before the start of the challenge: scallops, quail, peppers, raspberries, and Hoppy Brewing Company’s Blonde Ale.  The main challenge of the competition was to incorporate these ingredients into as many dishes as possible, and even though each chef was only required to present 3 dishes, some were able to construct 4 or 5 dishes in the 45 minute time allotted.  The six competing chefs were Shawn Menard of Chops Steak, Obadiah Huetter of Mangoes Restaurant at Arden Hills Resort & Spa, Charles Connell of the DoubleTree Hotel, Enrique Mondragon of SacTown Catering & Cafe, Tim Ray (an amateur chef and At&T employee) with support from Chris Lombardi of Hangar 17, and defending champion Adam Pechal of Tuli Bistro.

Chefs Menard and Heutter were the first two to cook, followed by Chefs Modragon and Connell,and bringing up the rear were the team of Tim Ray and Chef Lombardi, and Chef Pechal.  When asked by the Emcees of the competition what I was looking for, I said,”I am looking for the chefs to put themselves on a plate,” which is somewhat similar to what I heard from Chef Flay, Bob Tuschman, and Susie Fogelson during the NFNS competition.  Each of the chefs tackled the challenge with full force, and created a lovely array of dishes that were both beautiful in presentation and in consumption.

Scotch Bonnets, also known as Habaneros, were on of the mystery ingredients for the challenge

With the audience cheering on their favorite chefs, and food being brought to the judges table what seemed like every 5 minutes, there was never a stop in the action, and the food spoke for itself.  Whether it was Chef Menard’s smoky Anchiote Quail with Chorizo Hash, Chef Heutter’s decadent Carrot Ginger Soup w/ Truffle Oil and a Carrot Dust Rim (served in a 2 ounce shot glass), or Chef Pechal’s unbelievable Scallop Ceviche with Lime, Cilantro, and Habanero Oil, the chefs just kept throwing punches and the judges kept eating them.  In the end, Tuli Bistro’s Chef Adam Pechal defended his title, and seemed very happy to repeat.  “I just tried to put out food that I am proud of and that represented my style of cooking,” he said.  With his younger brother as his sous chef, he did just that.  Joking around after the competition, he mentioned to me that knowing his quail was overcooked, he had to improvise.  “I flash sauteed the quail in the pan with a little Woodford Reserve to help in gain some moisture.”  Although mine was a bit overcooked, the bourbon definitely added flavor, and in my opinion, anyone who uses Woodford Reserve to cook better win, because it is not an inexpensive bottle of booze, and it is not wise to waste good bourbon around me.

In the end, the city of Sacramento threw an amazing event, and a good time was had by all.  My “entourage”, which consisted of my dad and 5 friends from NorCal, all had an absolute blast, and were full and inebriated by the end of the evening.  My friends actually started putting all of the produce that was supplied for the challenge into boxes, and took about $90 worth of free organic vegetables back to their house, so in the end, it was a fantastic evening.  Tim Ray, the local amateur chef who was helped by Chef Chris Lombardi of Hangar 17, had the best chef’s coat, and even though he didn’t win, definitely gets my award for best dressed.  Thanks to Sacramento for having a SoCal kid crash the party… can’t wait to do it again next year!

maybe this will cause some chef's to switch their phone plans to AT&T

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 7th, 2009 at 4:26 pm and is filed under Rants and Raves. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.