Logan chefs vie for title ‘Best of Cache Valley’
Once a year spatulas fly and ingredients combine as the public salivates rink-side waiting anxiously for their chance to help name the Cache Valley Chef of the Year.
The second annual Spice on Ice Chef Invitational cook-off and auction began and ended Thursday night the way any major event should: with food Рlots and lots of food. Bread donated by the Crumb Brothers Bakery and appetizers donated by Le Nonne, Caf̩ Sabor, The Copper Mill and The Painted Table, combined to whet the pallets of participants at the event.
Sold-out 24 days in advance, this year’s cook-off brought together eight local chefs who prepared original dishes ranging from Parmesan Crusted Halibut to Medicine Lodge Bison Short Ribs. Joy Brisighella, marketing director and special events coordinator at the George S. Eccles Ice Center, said the two main criterion for entering the competition are that a chef work in Cache Valley and must have full charge of his menu and recipes.
“That’s why it’s a chef thing, not a restaurant thing,” Brisighella said, “and that’s why Winger’s, Ruby Tuesdays and other fine restaurants don’t have chefs competing.”
Dustin McKay, a full-time chef at The Copper Mill since 1988, won both the Judge’s and People’s Choice awards this year with his caramelized fresh salmon fillet on Asian vegetable slaw with roasted pineapple-ginger coulis and soy-balsamic gastrique, which he calls simply, Kamikaze salmon.
“I feel happy, and excited,” Mckay said. “I think it’s an honorable accomplishment. There’s a lot of competition in the valley, every day more and more, and to be able to showcase yourself and win an award not only from the judges but from the people, it means a lot.”
McKay, who graduated from the USU culinary arts program in 1999, said that daily attention to detail was one of the main things that made him the chef he is today.
Last year’s winners, John Simpson from Culinary Concepts Catering and Jerem Jones from the Iron Gate Grill participated respectively as judge and expeditor of the competition.
The main purpose of the event is to raise money for the Eccles Ice Center, which is the only Olympic-size, non-profit ice arena in the Intermountain West, Brisighella said. To that purpose, participants are invited to dig deep during the auction portion of the event.
“You will have my undying gratitude if you buy these items,” said master of ceremonies Scott Voldness.
One of the most unique items up for sale was a half-hour Zamboni lesson. A Zamboni is an ice re-surfacer developed by Frank Zamboni more than fifty years ago.
“You cannot come here and buy [a lesson],” Brisighella said. “People come up and they want to ride on the Zamboni, [but] you can only get it at our annual auction. So if you have a guy who’s always wanted to rid the Zamboni, he has to come here and bid on it.”
Other items up for auction included a week-long condo stay at a choice of 30 different destinations, including Hawaii, Mexico, and Branson, Missouri. Many local artists donated artwork and various companies donated tickets, makeovers, and other package deals. There was even a Steve Young autographed football up for bid.
“We wanted to showcase the talent in Cache Valley,” Brisighella said of the inclusion of local artists and businesses in the auction.
In addition to the funds generated by the auction, Brisighella said the arena covers most of its operating expenses with donations and operating revenue from the public.
The ice center provides outlet for several clubs and organizations that have sprung up since its construction for the Olympics three years ago. Calling the ice arena home are the Cache Valley Stone Society (also known as the curling club), the Cache Valley figure skating club, the Utah State Hockey club, the high school hockey Wild Leage and a woman’s hockey league called the Freeze.
More than anything, the event is a chance for the valley’s chefs to showcase their remarkable talent, Brisighella said.
“Personally, I do not cook and my husband and I eat out a lot, and we notice how many wonderful chefs there are here with world-class food,” she said. “We have some really exemplary chefs here, we wanted something that would be our own little niche and [the event] just grows every year.”
-mattgo@cc.usu.edu
(Photo by Michael Sharp)