The eighth annual Great American Seafood Cook-Off will take place Saturday, pitting up-and-coming chefs against culinary heavyweights.
The event will take place at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans as part of the annual Louisiana Foodservice Expo. The participating chefs represent 14 states from Maine to Alaska, and in the competition they are required to use seafood native to their states, even if they’re from landlocked states.
“You’re going to be watching some of the best chefs cooking seafood,” Ewell Smoth, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board executive direct, told NOLA.com. “It’s a chance to see different cuisines from across the country prepared by people from across the country. I am excited about the talented lineup we have competing this year.”
Host of the TLC show “BBQ Pitmasters” and chef and restauraunteur Kevin Roberts will host this year’s cook-off, along with chef John Folse, known as Louisiana’s Culinary Ambassador to the World.
Competitors in this year’s contest are Jim Smith, executive chef at the Alabama Governor’s Mansion; Erik Slater, executive chef at Alaska’s Sweard Windsong Lodge; John Minas, executive chef at the Florida Governor’s Mansion; Gregory Volle, executive chef at the Illinois Executive Mansion; Jeremy Ashby, executive chef of AZUR; Cory Bahr of Louisiana’s Restaurant Sage; Margaret Salt McLellan, winner of the 2008 Maine Lobster Chef of the Year competition; Heath Johnson of Mississippi’s City Grocery; Scott Anderson of Elements in New Jersey; Bud Gruniger, executive chef of Badnights Lone Cedar Café in North Carolina; Erol Kanmaz, sous chef at Cascade Dining Room in Oregon; Corbett Rourk, executive chef of The Dunes Golf and Beach Club in South Carolina; and Ed Fischer, chef-owner of the North Fork Mountain Inn in West Virginia.
Judges include chef Rick Moonen, restaurateur, cookbook author and a finalist of Bravo’s “Top Chef Masters;” Laura McIntosh, host of the syndicated traveling cooking show “Bringing it Home;” Roland Schaeffer of the American Academy of Chefs; Melissa Kogut, executive director of Chefs Collaborative; and Will Blunt, managing editor of StarChefs.com.
Dean James Max, executive chef at 3030 Ocean in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., took home the title of King of American Seafood last year with his Sebastian Inlet Clams BBLT (bacon, basil, lettuce and tomato). Max will be on hand this year to hold a cooking demonstration and crown the new winner.
As part of SeafoodSource’s Q&A Tuesday series, SeafoodSource Contributing Editor Christine Blank interviewed Cory Bahr of Louisiana and Scott Anderson of New Jersey. Click here to listen to the interview with Bahr and here to listen to the interview with Anderson. Or click here to read Blank’s interview with Max last year.
