On the Road with the Grape Guy
Report from - Vinelands 3rd Annual Ironic Chef ... April 16, 2008
21 Apr 2008- Details
- Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy
Approximately 60 folks joined 6 judges and 4 chefs for an interactive dinner based on the now classic television show The Iron Chef. The twist was that the audience votes for the dishes as well as the judging panel, which consisted of Vineland Winemaker Brian Schmidt, celebrity chefs Michael and Anna Olson, Toronto restaurateur John Maxwell (Allen’s on the Danforth), sommelier Jamie Drummond (Jamie Kennedy Kitchens) and Chef Mark Hand, who played the role of Kaga (host/overseer) as well as Shinichiro Ohta, that guy who breaks in with comments from the kitchen (“Fukui-san, the elk used for this challenge was actually raised by wolves.”)
5 courses were paraded out (1 at a time obviously), created from a menu concocted earlier that afternoon from a selection of “Mystery Ingredients” that was presented to the teams at noon this very day. The two teams who would square off against one another were the old guard, or “Senior Team”: Jan-Willem Stulp (executive chef at Vinelend Restaurant) and Chef Daryl Neamtu versus the young guns, or “Junior Team” of Heather Rhymes and Justin Downes (both sous-chefs). On the line, were not only bragging rights for the year, but a tie breaker, which would give one of these two teams a 2-1 lead. The previous year saw the Senior Team win to tie the overall score at 1-1 … so the pressure was on the Senior Team to repeat. In the two previous years the margin of victory was around 60 points – this year’s victor would end up squeaking out a 32.25-point victory – more on that in a minute... (Read more)
