cooking FOR fun
WITH SAM BOZZO
39th Annual Gilroy Garlic Festival
Champions for Charity Cook-off
After the 2016 SakaBozzo retirement from being on the Garlic Festival stage for 25 years, I did not expect to be back up there this year. We were surprised when SakaBozzo was invited to judge the Champions for Charity cook-off competition on Friday, July 28th. Gene Sakahara and I were joined by chef Jason Gronlund, a two time Gilroy Garlic Festival Professional Chef Cook Off winner. The contest was made even more lively by master of ceremonies, Shaun O’ Neale, season seven winner on Fox Network Master Chef. His entertaining banter kept the first responders and the audience laughing.
Three teams of first responders competed for a $ 3,000 donation to their chosen charity. The defending champions Herb Alpers and Tom Evans from CAL FIRE / South Santa Clara County Fire Protection District were competing for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Next John Campbell and Morgan Sanders from AMR( American Medical Response) Rural / Metro Ambulance, Santa Clara County were hoping to win the prize money for the Alzheimer’ s Association. It should be noted that John won the“ unofficial uniform” award for this camouflaged kilt. Finally, Robert Herrera and Ludwin Marroquin of the San Jose Fire Department were cooking their best for the Bill Wilson Center for Youth and Families of Santa Clara County.
The competition started with revealing the secret ingredients for the entrée … shrimp, boxed macaroni and cheese, Christopher Ranch Pesto and Hazmat Hot Sauce. This round would see one team being eliminated. The teams each had 30 minutes to prepare the entrée They also had access to a well stocked pantry. Each dish was presented to the judges for scoring and tabulating.
The winning entree dish was shrimp dippd in flour and sautéed in extra virgin olive oil dashed with the Hazmat Hot Sauce, which, by the way, was developed by Cook Off chairperson, Marcie Morrow. The meal was served with the boxed noodles and a medley of shitake, cremini, Portobello and oyster mushrooms topped with roasted garlic and a Merlot wine reduction. Voting was close and the first round went to John Campbell and Morgan Sanders from AMR Rural / Metro Ambulance. Defending champions Herb Alders and Tom Evans from CAL FIRE were eliminated.
Next came the second round challenge of making a dessert with the secret ingredients … heavy cream, zucchini, roasted garlic and spam. John and Morgan took heavy whipping cream, roasted garlic, brown sugar julienne sliced spam with a bit of olive oil butter and spiral zucchini. John created a Crème Anglaise which is egg yolks and sugar whisked and gently blended on double boiler until a lightly simmered custard is formed. Their finished dish was beautiful and delicious.
Maybe it was the heat or the heat of the competition but my mind wondered to thoughts of bananas foster … except it was zucchini and spam with the roasted garlic, butter and brown sugar and when the Crème Anglaise was gently poured over those ingredients, my mind went to a rare great holiday dessert, Zabaione, with almost the same ingredients.
After tasting and evaluating the two desserts, the winner was announced. The Champions of Charity went to John Campbell and Morgan Sanders from AMR Rural / Metro Ambulance, Santa Clara County. Based on their win, a check for $ 3,000 was sent to the Alzheimer’ s Association.
The three teams competing gave their all, just like they do every day in their role as first responders. We thank them for their service and their willingness to contribute their winnings to a much needed non-profit. Based on the hugs and congratulations, everyone enjoyed the day and the competition.
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GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2017 gmhtoday. com