Chefs Use Local Products in State Ag Competition

Posted by Centre Daily Times, PA on August 21, 2008 at 07:11:02:

Best chef emerges
Eight in outdoor kitchens make use of local ingredients
By Gail Franklin- For the CDT
PENNSYLVANIA FURNACE — Take some fresh raspberries and add tarragon, some creamy peanut butter, and make a vinaigrette dressing for a green salad.

How does it taste?

“Not too bad,” said Chef Bill Sell, executive chef for Altoona Hotel, after he served it to three judges at the West-Central regionals of the PA Preferred Best Chef Competition.

In fact, that surprising combination was one of many unique flavors that helped Sell beat chefs from several State College restaurants during two days of competition at Penn State’s Ag Progress Days.

Sell was given a $500 check by state Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff after he won against Chef Curiel Bame, executive chef of State College’s Ramada Conference Center, during the final cookoff on Wednesday. Sell will now compete in January at the state Farm Show against three other regional winners in the state.

Eight chefs competed in face-to-face outdoor kitchens in the style of “Iron Chef,” a television show on Food Network, including local chefs from The Corner Room, Nittany Lion Inn and Harrison’s Wine Grill and Catering.
But Sell, a newcomer to the competition and an out-of-town chef, swept the competition with his Caribbean and Mexican-inspired cooking.

Surrounded by agricultural land, though, it was fitting that the ingredients most often took main stage.

At the beginning of every 30-minute cookoff, each chef was given a mystery bin with eight or nine ingredients they were required to include in their dishes. When beer from the Pennsylvania brewery Troegs came out of the bin, Bame took a swig and decided to pair it with pecans and risotto.

Sell used eggs from Sauder’s Farm in Lancaster for a salad, and locally grown corn for a relish that was added to an entree of red chile and brown sugar-rubbed bison and served with roasted poblanos, anchovies and couscous.

“The real test for these guys is to take several random ingredients and make a dish out of it,” said one judge, Chef Michael Finch, a certified executive chef and instructor at Harrisburg Area Community College.

“The most surprising was the raspberry and peanut butter vinaigrette. (Sell) took a risk and it worked.”

Each chef that competed works for a restaurant that participates in the PA Preferred program run by the state’s Department of Agriculture, and that means they use as many local foods as possible.

It’s the third year the department has hosted the competition to increase awareness about its PA Preferred program, which helps connect consumers and purveyors of food with local products.

“It’s about keeping our farmers farming and profitable,” Wolff told the audience.

The contest was sponsored by Sysco of Central Pennsylvania, which sells local produce to restaurants and provided all the food for the competition.

Clayton Styler, an 11-year-old from Lawrence County, said he only cooks cereal or reheated pizza, and didn’t know that couscous was a small, grainy form of pasta before he watched Wednesday’s competition.

Nancy Noll, owner of The Queen, a Victorian bed and breakfast in Bellefonte, said she was inspired to use the raspberries she grows to make a vinaigrette.

“The mystery tub is my fridge,” Noll said. “I’m going to go home and try to do something with raspberries, beer and peanut butter.”

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