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Written by Eva Colmenero
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Tuesday, 13 April 2010 12:16 |
Local culinary masters compete for the chance to go against last year’s winner
The heat turned cheeks red and the stomachs were grumbling at Olives restaurant last Wednesday. The restaurant was the stage for this year’s Salut Wine + Food Hot Chefs & Cool Foods Iron Chef Elimination Battle.
This year’s Iron Chef brought together four chefs from four Calgary restaurants to compete for the opportunity to go to the Iron Chef rematch this Thursday.
Garth Brown, Olives restaurant general manager and MC of the event, laid out the rules– “no stabbing anyone, no burning anyone,” he said. “Just kidding.”
The four chefs had an hour to prepare one dish using the secret ingredient– a whole duck. Then the three judges tasted the dishes and graded them on presentation, taste and originality.
The four chefs toast and chat while the judges make their decision.
Photo: Eva Colmenero/ Calgary Journal
All four chefs had to share the limited space of the open kitchen at Olives for the first time.
“These guys have never worked together before, “ said Jason Boyd, SAIT culinary instructor and one of the judges at the competition. "But they’re working around each other and joking around."
Despite the camaraderie between the chefs, there had to be a winner.
Scott Beaton from Centini Restaurant & Lounge took the glory with his seared Brome Lake duck breast with maitake mushroom risotto with an aromatic citrus sauce and licorice emulsion foam.
“It was pretty competitive,” Beaton said. “(The secret ingredient) wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be fish.”
He said that the ingredients on the table suggested that it would be fish, but that duck is “versatile” so it was not difficult.
Second place went to Nicole Kammerer. As runner-up, she has the privilege of being Chuck Hughes' sous-chef at the rematch. Chef Hughes comes from Montreal’s Garde-Manger restaurant, and lost last year in the Iron Chef competition. Going against them is J.P. Gerristen, Olives’ sous-chef and last year’s Iron Chef winner.
The chefs were chosen for their “creativity, passion and youth that we’re looking for in this competition,” Brown said. “And they were the ones who said yes.”
The Iron Chef event was the second event in the Salut Wine + Food Festival, which will be in Calgary through Saturday, and will move on to Toronto for seven days in May.
Editor's note: This article has been updated. |
