SF Chefs & The Eater Chef Challenge: The Final Faceoff

August 14, 2012

SF Chefs & The Eater Chef Challenge: The Final Faceoff

SF Chefs & The Eater Chef Challenge: The Final Faceoff

I apologize in advance, but if you have a serious case of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), don't continue reading. But seriously, after attending SF Chefs, I can't not brag about it. Last Sunday was probably one of the best days of my life. I had the pleasure of tasting some of the best food in the Bay, as well as had the opportunity to meet some of the top dogs in cooking history. Drew Nieporent anyone? If you don't know who this is, Mr. Nieporent is the part owner of Nobu (named after sushi chef Nobu Matsuhisa) restaurants worldwide, as well as the founder of the Myriad Restaurant Group. The Myriad Group owns and runs many restaurants throughout the nation, including Nobu (LA, NYC, London, Honolulu...etc) and The Tribeca Grill (NYC).

Other big names of renowned authors and chefs include Alice Waters, author and founder of restaurant Chez Panisse, David Bazirgan from San Francisco's Fifth Floor and Thomas Keller, executive chef of French Laundry. Margo True, Sunset Magazine's top Food Editor, was in attendance as well. I could seriously go on and on about the big players exclusively chosen for this festival.

My birthday is coming up, and for a present, my mom bought me tickets to go to SF Chefs. If you aren't a crazy foodie like me, for your reference, SF Chefs is a big wine, spirits, and food event held every year in San Francisco. The event is 5 days long, but the tickets are incredibly pricey, so I was only able to attend one day. Think Fashion Week in New York City or Paris; This is Fashion Week for the food industry on the West Coast.

Different Bay Area chefs attend each day, and each chef has their own area to make their own featured appetizer dish. Basically, it is a day full of wine and cocktail tasting, food tasting, and cooking events. I chose to go on Sunday, August 5th. I chose this day because my good friend Jessica's roommate, Gustavo Romero (executive chef from San Francisco's Credo), would be there, cooking. I have had the pleasure of eating at Credo twice, and have left satisfied and happy each time. Gustavo is incredibly generous, humble, and talented. It's easy to pick out a good chef from the crowd -just look for the chef that is most composed, is slightly sweating on the forehead, and has his/her cooking area fairly clean. Gustavo is one of the few who makes cooking look so easy, even though you know he is busting his tush to get things done.

The morning started off with a Chef Challenge hosted by Sf.Eater.com, a San Francisco food blog started and founded by Carolyn Alburger. This challenge was basically like a Top Chef Challenge, or a Chopped challenge, with secret ingredients only unveiled seconds before the hour long challenge started. As the website explains, the Eater Challenge can be described as this: "Four teams of two San Francisco chefs will battle it out in a race to make the best dishes from a mystery basket of ingredients." The mystery ingredients turned out to be herbs and pork (not very mysterious, if you ask me). All types of pork cuts were brought out, as well as an entire pile of vegetables, herbs, and spices. Anything goes.

The two teams we got to see compete were Brandon Jew of Bar Agricole and Steffan Terje of Perbacco vs. David Bazirgan from Fifth Floor and Mark Dommen from One Market. All local chefs of San Francisco, their talent and timing were fitting for the city that we are in. Fast paced, but still put together. I wish I could tell you exactly what was made at the finish, but I didn't write down all of the dishes because honestly they were going so fast. But I do have pictures! I know there was some kind of herb ice cream made, and also a corn pancake. Sounds bizarre, but going off of the smells in the room, was probably delicious. As the judges all got to taste the food, the rest of us had to sit silently in the salon watching, with the only noise coming out of us being our tummys grumbling. David Bazirgan and Mark Dommen took it for the win, and each left with a fresh set of copper pots and pans from the company Anolon, as well as a $5,000 culinary scholarship created in their name.

The challenge ended around 11:45 am, and we had until 1 pm when the tent opened. So in true foodie fashion, we went for a glass of wine at Bar Norcini to pass the time.

Chef Off!

The Judges, from left to right: Drew Nieporent (NYC restaurateur), Margo True (Sunset Magazine, Carolyn Alburger (Eater SF) and Anjan Mitra (Dosa). The emcee of the day was Liam Mayclem (CBS5 Eye on the Bay)

David Bazirgan, Steffan Terje, and Brandon Jew

Mark Dommen and David Bazirgan, the Winning Team

Mark Dommen

Steffan and Brandon's dishes: Yeasted Corn Pancake with Peach and Pork Shoulder

Mark and David's Plum and Smoked Herb Ice Cream with a foie gras powder, and shabu-shabu (which means swish swish in Japanese)

Weggies!

The Big Tent Event!

When 1 pm finally rolled around, we were certainly ready to eat. After waiting in line for about 15 minutes, we were led into the huge tent that had been created over Union Square. Automatically, we were handed glasses for wine and directed over to the first tasting area. Driscoll Berries and some kind of cheese company. Um, yes and yes please. Off to a good start! From there, we headed to a table that had a delicious heirloom tomato, cucumber, and pesto tapenade, topped with sesame seeds on a cracker. YUM. From here, we were off. We tried everything from cured duck breast to a beef heart styled “Reuben” to chili-glazed pork belly to a cracker with fresh salmon and a roasted pepper sriracha cream cheese. There were many breweries there as well, including Half Moon Bay Brewery and also Anchor Steam. On top of that, there were also a few spirit a few distilleries in attendance, so I got to try a few whiskeys and gins. Legit, you just got to walk up to the booth and ask for a drink, and one would be made for you. At some point I was at a Portuguese wine booth, and got offered a free 30-minute Portuguese wine class that I gladly took up.

I would continue on and on, but I don’t want you to be too jealous. Remember, folks, there is always next year!! And I most definitely will be there, all three days of the tasting, blogging live from my iPad. Alright, maybe that’s a little ambitious but a girl can dream. I certainly and most definitely will be there though.

I hope you enjoy the pictures of the food, and I hope that you will come back to read about some of the things I make from the cookbooks I bought at the event. A $50 cookbook from the restaurant 11 Madison in NYC? Why not? After 3 hours of wine tasting, that sounded like the best idea in the world. Plus, there was an important looking chef next to me raving about it, so I pretty much had to buy it.

I have to say, I ended up trying a lot of foods I wouldn't normally eat, but when in Rome...

I apologize for not having all of the restaurant names and food descriptions, but I'll add what I can find, and remember...