On the menu today, we’re serving up a tasty special of $100.
A deliciously satisfying $100 gift card from CSN to be exact.
Are you salivating yet?
The gift card is good at any CSN online store, where you can shop till you drop for everything from a glam new end table to an ice cream maker to a chic new purse to a super sharp chef’s knife.
How to win?
In gleaming chef’s whites last Friday at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena, six amateur and professional cooks took to the stoves, battling one another to come up with a delicious, appealing and creative spin on a protein so commonplace in our diets that most of us eat it at least twice a week.
Of course, that would be chicken.
This was the first ever Foster Farms West Coast Chicken Cooking Contest. The grand prize? A cool $10,000, plus a year’s supply of Foster Farms fresh chickens.
More than 2,000 folks entered the contest, which was limited to entrants from California, Oregon and Washington. On Friday, two regional finalists from each state competed in the final cook-off, which was judged by yours truly, along with Lena Birnbaum, associate food editor of Bon Appetit magazine; Elaine Johnson, associate food editor of Sunset magazine; and Michele Kayal, a contributing writer for the Associated Press and creator of the Hyphenated Chef blog.
The contest is the successor to the long-running National Chicken Cooking Contest, which began in 1949, but ended last year because of economic issues. That was when West Coast-based Foster Farms, family-owned since 1939, stepped in to carry on the tradition with a contest of its own.
The contest was open to both professional and homecooks. Contestants were required to use Foster Farms chicken in their recipes, which were designed to serve four, as well as an abundance of fresh and local ingredients. The only caveat was that the recipes could not involve grilling, as Foster Farms reps wanted recipes that could be cooked year-round in any part of the country.
At 8:30 a.m., we judges gathered with forks and knives to taste chicken bright and early. The contestants, who would cook in the kitchen three at a time and have 90 minutes to complete their dish, were already hunched over cutting boards, slicing chicken, chopping garlic and carefully measuring sugar and oil.
Orchards and farms have all but disappeared from the Valley of Heart’s Delight.
But look closely, beyond the chips and wafers that now grow in the Santa Clara Valley, and you’ll still find a few, including the inspiring Full Circle Farm, an 11-acre, organic, educational farm designed to supply fresh produce to Santa Clara Unified School District cafeterias.
Last year, the farm grew more than 40,000 pounds of fruits and veggies, 10,000 pounds of which were donated to local food banks and shelters. The farm also supplied weekly produce to 55 community sponsored agriculture share holders and operated a year-round farm stand on its grounds. Moreover, it provided fresh vegetables to the school district’s children’s lunch program, where nearly half the students qualify for free or reduced-price meals.
Who wouldn’t want to be able to photograph food as lovely and luminous as those images above?
I know I sure would.
The pics of Point Reyes glorious cheeses and scenery were taken by Eric Wolfinger, who has regularly chronicled the San Francisco food scene at such restaurants as Tartine, Slanted Door and Delfina. In fact, you can see his work in the upcoming “Tartine Bread” (Chronicle Books).
Sept. 20, you can meet him in person and pepper him with photography questions when he hosts a special dinner at Outerlands in San Francisco.
The dinner will both celebrate his new exhibition at the nearby Carville Annex, which runs through Oct. 6, and benefit Marimed, an organization working to bring health care and medical care to post-quake Haiti.
When I first started my Food Gal blog in 2008, Chef Christopher Kostow, who had just landed at the Restaurant at Meadowood resort in St. Helena as its executive chef, was gracious enough to be spotlighted in my first Take Five Q&A.
In that interview, the Michelin two-star chef who celebrates his 34th birthday this week, famously said he’d never want to be on a show like “Top Chef” because he couldn’t fathom he’d gain anything from it. That may be so, but this Sunday, Sept. 5, you can tune in to watch Kostow tackle another cooking competition show instead — “Iron Chef America“- when he goes up against Iron Chef Cat Cora.
Yesterday, I chatted with him by phone about why he decided to make the leap into this reality TV cooking arena, and how he coped with his lifelong personal aversion to this particular secret ingredient.
Q: So you remember what you said to me about ‘Top Chef,’ right? So, why go on ‘Iron Chef America’ then?
A: I still don’t have anything to gain from ‘Top Chef.’ But ‘Iron Chef’ is one day or just a few hours really. It’s good exposure, especially when you have a restaurant in Napa that’s off the beaten path. I didn’t miss any time in my kitchen, either, which was important to me.
Q: Are you a fan of these types of shows?
A: Not really. I don’t really watch much food TV. I don’t want to go home and watch people scrambling around, cooking food, because I see that when I’m at work.
I think TV is a double-edged sword. It has raised awareness among the populace about what we do. But there’s a false sense about it. People think we run around all day competing in the kitchen. In some ways, it demeans what we do. I take this all with a grain of salt. We’ve done a lot in this restaurant, but I find it amusing that this is the thing everyone wants to talk about. At the end of the day, that’s why chefs go on TV.
Q: When the Food Network came calling, you didn’t say ‘yes’ immediately?
A: I went back and forth about it. I’m not a chef shut-in by any means. I like talking to people. I like being in the dining room. But I didn’t want to present my food in a style that wasn’t me. In the end, we presented things on the show in a manner that we were comfortable with.
Q: Did you know Cat Cora already?
A: It was the first time I met her. It was filmed a year ago. And then last December, she was part of our ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ (when 12 renowned chefs pair with 12 Napa Valley vintners for a series of holiday feasts). It was fun. I enjoyed meeting her and her team.
Q: What hint can you give us about the secret ingredient?