Savour Stratford - Tasting Awards

Those of you who know me, know that I shy away from food tasting events. The kind of events where the masses throng confined spaces to rush their movable feast of dozens of tastings at breakneck speeds before the spoils are too picked over.

Trying to juggle a plate, sometimes of an odd shape, with a wine glass, napkin and camera can be a bit tricky.

I usually prefer enjoying a chef's creations in his or her dining room, where the setting is much more leisurely and the food preparation and plating gets full attention and care.

700 tickets were sold for Savour Stratford's main event. It is the most challenging of conditions for chefs to work in. It is a tented outdoor setting. One never knows the temperature. Last year it was freezing, this this year warm enough that the wasps were keen to explore. The workstation is makeshift and confining. And the order of the day is to present a food idea that showcases one's talent, can be assembled with ease, is manageable for the taster, and can be put out as fast as the sold-out crowd descends.

So what was I doing in the Tasting Tent at Savour Stratford last Sunday afternoon? Two words. VIP ticket. The general admission was $75 - a pretty respectable price for 30 plus tastings. It also included a selection of beverages - craft beer, Ontario wines, coffee, tea. (Ottawa's Feast of Fields a few weeks earlier sold tickets for $70 and had 20 farmer-chef teams.) For an extra $40 I could call myself 'VIP'. The biggest plus for being VIP? I was graced with a 'food rush handicap' of 60 minutes to do my tortoise race at a more leisurely pace and with a wee bit of elbow room.

Some may think that $40 is a lot of money to pay for space around you but I should mention we also received a swag bag. The snappy looking black event bag itself retailed for $6. The 50 gr. spice blend by well-known Kitchen Connaisseur sells for $6.50. The 125 ml jar of Crock Pickle Relish by Pickles Eh! sells for $3.50. There were a number of winery tours and tastings certificates (harder to use for an out-of-towner like me), soap, a darling wine cup, bottle opener. I could go on. It now doesn't seem like I paid THAT much more for my head start and breathing space.

The Tasting event was judged by Connie DeSousa, Chuck Hughes, Ivy Knight, Suresh Doss, and Kris Holden-Reid. I felt they made solid choices. I tasted them all except the winner of Best Beverage.


People's Choice Award - Pickled heirloom tomato with garlic and herbed cheese on a fried wonton finished with micro sprouts
By: Chef Jamie Craig, Wildstone Bar & Grill with Miss Fosters Popcorn and Good Luck Farms


Best Meat Dish - "Porkapoluza" [Corn tortillas made with pork lard, Berkshire bacon jam, Habanero smoked Tamworth pork belly, Fermented pico de gallo, Salt-cured Berkshire loin shavings and Pork crackling] *** My choice for best over all ***
By: Chef Nick Benninger of Nick and Nat's Uptown 21 with Perth Pork Products


Best Vegetarian Dish - Weth Mushroom Tostada with Tomatillo Salsa & Sour Cream
By: Chef Aaron Linley, Bijou with Weth Mushrooms

Most Creative Dish - Butternut Squash Ice Cream with Black Walnut Shortbread and David Koert's Organic Maple Butter
By: Chef Mark Brown, Stone Maiden Inn with Koert Organics

Best Dessert - C'est Bon Chevre Panna Cotta
By: Chef Rene Delafranier, Rene's Bistro with C'est Bon Cheese Limited

Best Beverage - Ontario Savoury Herbal Tea
By: Tea Sommelier, Karen Hartwick from Tea Leaves Tea Tasting Bar

I do want to highlight one other entry.


My Personal Honourable Mention - Arincini Balls [Risotto ball stuffed with braised pork. Fried then topped with fontina and smoky tomato & bacon jam.]
By: Chef Sean Collins & Greg Kuepfer, Pazzo Restorante and Pizzeria with Church Hill Farm

Despite not being cut out for these types of events, I had a great time. I loved the food. I was thrilled that they had decent weather and not the forecasted rain. To feed 700 people in such a short time under non-traditional cooking and plating conditions, was impressive. By the time I headed out, the place was packed!

Hats off to the organizers, chefs, farmers and their teams. Savour Stratford overall was an impressive event. You are fully deserving of your provincial and national recognition. Well done.

Things I liked:

• A VIP ticket was available for those wanting to be less crowded. For a bit.
• The program listed the names of the Farmer-Chef Culinary Teams with the details of the dish they were going to serve.
• The swag bag was given at the end. Nice not to have one more thing to juggle.
• There were decent items in the swag bag.
• There were a number of well placed water coolers
  
• There was an opportunity to meet a number of the producers on Saturday and Sunday in the Farmers' Market nearby. I often feel the producers get short shrifted on these types of events. Understandably, there is so much glamour around the actual dish created, when the glory maybe should go to those who provided the raw ingredients. Because of the crowds and the need to be moving the yummies along as they are plated, there really is no time to engage in any depth of conversation with the farmers. As a result, I so appreciated being able to spend time with the producers at their stands in the market.

Opportunities:

• Consider providing clear signage in the Farmers' Market for those participating in the Tasting Tent. I just fell across this information in conversation with a number of them. It is an opportunity to give them some more airtime. Perhaps other Tasting Tent visitors would make a point of checking out their farmers beforehand.
• 30 tastings is plenty. I risked not feeling well from all the richness. I skipped 5 booths just to be on the safe side. (All be it they were two teas, a coffee, jams and chocolate - I know, bad call.) There was no room for liquor on top of all of that. I didn't dare. Congrats to those who could do both. So in that sense, I did not maximize my ticket price.
• Push quality over quantity. I felt some tastings were a bit light on creativity.
• On the lighter side....I know this one will never fly, but here it goes. Maybe for us 'VIP's, you could load us on a golf cart at the end of the event and chariot us back to our car where we could decompress for a bit. As predicted, I was tuckered out going solid from 9 am to 3 pm. I was super stuffed. Thankfully, stone cold sober.

Interested in seeing the full selection of wonderful food tastes? Enjoy the slide show.

Chef Jonathan Gushue and 'The Forgotten Ingredients'

One of Savour Stratford Perth County Culinary Festival's Culinary Stage attractions was Langdon Hall's Executive Chef Jonathan Gushue, Grand Chef, Relais Chateaux.

The Scheduled Events program was light on details:

Join the widely acclaimed Executive Chef Jonathan Gushue, Grand Chef, Relais Chateaux as he whips up something local, fresh and absolutely delicious!

Probably any decent chef in Perth County could have 'whipped up something local, fresh and absolutely delicious'. So what really made me decide to hang on to my front row seat at the Culinary Stage for this session?

40-year-old Chef Gushue is well-known for his impressive resumé. Most recently he received the Ontario Hostelry Institute Gold Chef Award. In 2010 Langdon Hall was named to the S. Pellegrino 100 World's Best Restaurant List. They were ranked 77. A high achiever starting early on his career, at 32, he was selected by the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts to take over Truffles Restaurant to be one of their youngest 5 diamonds restaurant chefs in North America. The list of accolades is lengthy. And those achievements took place at notably prestigious establishments.

What actually kept me warming my seat was that I had first met Chef Gushue in the Spring of 2005 at a special function in Ottawa. At the time he was chef at Truffles at the Four Seasons.

The meal he organized was superb and the stand out for me was the Chilled Plum Tomato Consommé of all things. Not that I thought any less of the Rillettes de Salmon on Buckwheat Blinis, Poached Baby Lobster, Pressed Terrine of Smoked Ham Hock & Foie Gras, Saddle of Spring Lamb, Pave de Richelieu or Braised Rhubarb. But that tomato consommé was a thing of beauty. So remarkably clear. And the flavour.

For Saturday's demonstration and food sampling Chef Gushue focused on 'The Forgotten Ingredients' - Verbena, Hemp Seed, Wood Sorrel, Nasturtium, Wild Watercress and Wild Chocolate Mint.

Because of the idyllic, naturally wooded setting at Langdon Hall, the kitchen has access to a garden full of seasonal fruits and vegetables. They have maple trees tapped for syrup and there are fruit trees as well. Out in the wilder parts of the property they can go foraging for wild herbs and other edible plants.

He shared with us the extensive list of items in the Kitchen Garden:
Arugula, Asparagus, Basil, Brassicas, Carrots, Chard, Chives, Coriander Flowers, Blueberries, Cucumber, Fennel, Fig, Green Garlic, Garlic, Hibiscus, Hyssop, Jerusalem Artichoke, Lemon Balm, Marigolds, Melons, Mizuna, Nasturtium Leaves, Okra, Pole Beans, Radish, Salsify, Savory, Squash Shoots, Spinach, Sunflower, Squash Flowers, Strawberries, Sorrels, Tomatoes, Verbena.

Thankfully there are 7 gardeners on staff!

Before sampling each dish, we were given a taste of the forgotten ingredient in its natural form. Working through each dish, Chef Gushue talked about his approach of balancing flavours, creating complexities, working tensions on the taste buds. Yes, a chef, but perhaps also part artist, chemist, scientist and alchemist.


Verbena


Bulls Blood Beet & Verbena Jelly



Wood Sorrel (Oxalis)


Parsley Root & Ice Wine Puree, Wood Sorrel (Oxalis)



Hemp Seed


Chopped Apple Gorged Wagyu, Smoked Cold Pressed Canola & Cider Hollandaise, Burnt Hemp Seed Crumble



Nasturtium stock


Nasturtium leaves


Snow Crab in Flower Water



Wild Watercress


Ducks Egg, Wild Watercress, Salted Cream, Langdon Maple, Garlic Chive



Chocolate Mint


Wild Chocolate Mint Oreos

My favourite dish was the tartare tartlette. Mark Schatzker's Wagyu beef was melt in your mouth. It was the smoked cold pressed canola & cider hollandaise that pulled the tart together and captured my senses.

As an aside, researcher Dr. Alan Searleman of St. Lawrence University, NY may not be so surprised at Chef Gushue's talents. Searleman studies 'southpaws' and he claims they have higher IQs, solve problems better and enjoy more extensive vocabularies. When presenting his findings to the American Psychological Association's annual conference a decade ago, he said: "Left-handers have a higher 'fluid' intelligence and better vocabulary than the majority of the population. This is perhaps why there are more of them in creative professions, such as music, art and writing."

Gushue keeps 'leftie' company with the likes of Albert Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin and Pablo Picasso. (And, well, me!)

Savour Stratford - Best Chef Challenge

Recognize this guy? Chef Francisco Alejandri? He had a busy week last week. In addition to running his eatery, Agave Y Aguacate, in Toronto in the Kensington Market, he spent time in Ottawa on Monday and then in Stratford on Saturday.

Shawna Wagman, food editor for Ottawa Magazine, ran one of her City Bites Live sessions Monday evening at the Urban Element on Parkdale Avenue here in Ottawa. Chef Alejandri was the main attraction for a demonstration dinner called A Fresh Perspective on Mexican Cuisine. I had never heard of him before and had hoped to go. I figured if Shawna wanted to spend the evening with Francisco, he had to be good. Alas, I would be out of town.

Fast forward to Saturday. Being in the other end of the province, I decided to squeeze in a bit of Savour Stratford as part of my 'fun time'. One of the first events of the day Saturday was the Best Chef Challenge. I knew who would be judging but heard nothing about the competing chefs. The program for the day gave no details either. I found a seat in the first row and patiently waited.

Imagine my surprise to find out that Chef Francisco Alejandri would be one of the contenders. Here he was, 600 kms away from his Monday gig. Chef Alejandri does have a Stratford connection. He trained at the Stratford Chef School.



I was equally pleased to see that he was going up against Chef Janet Ashworth of The County Food Co., a stone's throw away on Erie Street. This eatery was on my wishlist of places to try in Stratford. Janet is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York.



The judges were early to their table:

Well known cookbook author (James Beard award-winning, at that) Jennifer McLagan. Jennifer was also recently in Ottawa promoting her latest book, Odd Bits. (See Ottawa food editor, Ron Eade's blog post).



Celebrity chef, Chuck Hughes. This past March he took down Bobby Flay in kitchen stadium on Iron Chef America. He is also known for his Food Network cooking series, Chuck's Day Off. For those not caught up on the TV side of Chuck, they may just know him as chef and co-owner of Restaurant Garde-Manger, located in Old Montreal.



Editor-in-Chief of award-winning Best Health magazine, Bonnie Munday. The magazine was launched in the spring of 2008.



Owner and head chef of Nick and Nat's Uptown 21, Nick Benninger. I have dined at Waterloo's Uptown 21 three times now in the past year. Which is a compliment to Nick and Nat, considering that I hail from Ottawa. Uptown 21 is very focused on using local ingredients and they are constantly looking for creative ways of being current on the food scene. Last spring they hosted Iron Chef Uptown.



Andrew Coppolino MC'd the event. Andrew is well-known in the counties, Perth and Huron, for promoting food. You can listen to him on The Food Show on 570 All News Radio. He also writes about food on his website, Waterloo Region Eats.

Andrew shared with us the format of the competition. Chefs were to produce 3 dishes in one hour. Once they heard about the secret ingredient they would have 15 minutes to make their plans and then the competition would begin.



There was a twist. Instead of one, there would be 4 secret ingredients. All chosen from Tanjo Family Farm near Millbank, the secret ingredients were: duck, Hungarian partridge, bacon and quail eggs.



Helping to run the show and do the colour commentary were Steve Stacey and Paul Finkelstein.



Steve writes the food blog The Local-Come-Lately. I have been reading it for a while now, and that voice of caring and sharing which resonates from his blog and his tweets (@localcomelately), carried through to the stage as he had fun tussling with the chefs.

I only know Paul from twitter (@paulfink). He may look very serious but he was a lot of fun. He is a teacher at Stratford Northwestern Secondary School. He has changed how food is taught to the teenagers and how they go about applying what they have learned. The students run the food establishment called the Screaming Avocado. Paul is also a host of the show Fink on the Food Network.

In addition to following the chefs' every moves, Steve and Paul interviewed the judges. They dug deep for the good stuff. Who knew that Nick and Nat's Uptown 21 makes 150 sandwiches for Brown Bag Fridays. Or that Chuck Hughes gifted Bobby Flay a Canadiens jersey when they met in Iron Chef America's Kitchen Stadium. (And it was well received.)



There was much to do in 60 minutes and the teams moved quickly, feeling the intensity of the competition. The induction cooktop did not perform as expected. Too hot. Not at all. We all wondered if Chef Ashworth's fries would be done on time as the oil in her pot boiled violently to its meniscus.





Finally, the plating began.





It was down to the wire, but both teams finished on time. Now it was up to the judges.



Both teams used all 4 ingredients across their 3 dishes. A heavy peppering of accolades as they tasted. But it was probably Chef Alejandri's (bottom left) lightly scrambled quail eggs cooked with bacon fat, guajillo sauce and Monforte's Pecorino Fresco Cheese that released the judges from their reserved posture. "I could have this for breakfast every day."

His other dishes: Duck breast served to medium rare with a purée of heirloom tomatoes and coriander chimichurri and puréed pumpkin seeds (top right) , Kentucky Fried Partridge with a light spiced batter served with celery root slaw and a cornbread made with bacon, bacon fat, jalapeño, a little scallion, and a bit of maple (bottom right).



Chef Ashworth took lots of ribbing for her duck poutine with fennel and celery root fries, suggesting she was playing to Chef Hughes' tastes. Some observers think Chef Hughes ultimately defeated Bobby Flay with his calorie hefty lobster poutine.

Chef Ashworth's dishes: Beer and barley risotto with Stratford Pilsner, partridge breast sliced with a bit of beer in it, roasted tomato couli and beer basted quail egg on top (top right), Poutine with fries made out of celery root and fennel with duck breast on top and Monforte's Pecorino Fresco cheese, drizzled with a sauce of red wine and tomato(bottom left), A savoury dessert and cheese course all in one: Traditional Scottish shortbread underneath with caramelized apple, squash and bacon. Also, with honey and white wine. On top some of Monforte's sheep's milk ricotta with a little lemon zest and a tiny bit of sugar. Kind of sweet and salty surprise (bottom right).

We saw some fancy plate work for just one hour in a kitchen unfamiliar to both. The final result was very close. Chef Alejandri came through with 217 points, just edging out Chef Ashworth by 7 points.

Not acquainted with the names, Alejandri and Ashworth? I think we may be hearing more of them.