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Blog
Missing in Action
May 29, 2007
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Earlier this month I attended the National Pork Board’s annual Taste of Elegance event at Barona Valley Ranch, a gambling resort outside San Diego. The event centers on a cook-off that this year included 24 chefs from across the United States .
Curiously, only one of the cooks was from a restaurant chain, Dan Dunville of Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Indianapolis. He sided braised pork shoulder with sweet potatoes and cabbage. Good as it was, it didn’t win.
Joseph Royer, chef-owner of Saturn Grill in Oklahoma City, took the grand prize. He also won in 2004. This year, his complicated Modern Noodle Bowl, which included 56 ingredients, bowled over the judges with stunning presentation and riot of flavors.
Still, you’d think a corporate chef from, say, a casual-dining chain could whip up something similar. Certainly, creative people like award-winning chef Bob Okura of The Cheesecake Factory or Max & Erma’s Corporate Executive Chef Bob Davis could handle the task.
Maybe they and a slew of others are too busy at work to show up--or perhaps they were not invited. But whatever the case, I believe casual-dining culinarians should participate at events like the Taste of Elegance. Winning an award, though no easy task, would definitely give these chefs more credibility among their peers and offer their companies a desperately needed competitive point of difference.
Posted by David Farkas on May 29, 2007 | Comments (0)