Skuna Bay chef competition finalists named

After eight first round competitions and two semi final contests, two chefs have been named finalists in Skuna Bay’s Kentucky Derby Chef Challenge.

Edward Sura (pictured), chef at Chicago restaurant Perennial Virant, won the Eastern semi final competition on 14 April. Sura won with a seared Skuna Bay salmon crusted with smoked and ground Bluegrass Soy mash and home pickled baby corn relish.

On 15 April, Sarah Scafer, executive chef at Irving Street Kitchen in Portland, Ore., won the western semi final event. Schafer presented a 90-minute cured Skuna Bay Salmon with salmon belly potato latkes and Skuna Bay caviar.

Event judges included Chef Levon Wallace from Proof on Main, Chef Kevin Ashworth of Milkwood and Chef David Dodd from Sullivan University all from Louisville, Kentucky and Chef Ian Gresik from Drago Centro in Los Angeles, Monica Olaes from Roy’s Pasadena in Portland, Ore. and Chef Michael Rossi from The Ranch in Anaheim, CA

“This was an incredibly strong and talented field,” said Dave Mergle of Skuna Bay Salmon. “The most impressive thing this year was seeing how vastly different and unique each dish was. Naturally we appreciated seeing what great, talented chefs can do in the kitchen under pressure but even more gratifying is that the competing chefs presented the salmon in such different ways that showed how versatile our salmon can be. Most exciting was that we have two finalists each of whom got there different ways: Chef Edward with a new twist on a classical preparation of grilled salmon; Chef Sarah with the challenge of curing her salmon in 90 minutes and using many different parts in various components. The final will be amazing!”