{"id":10247,"date":"2012-05-14T09:14:48","date_gmt":"2012-05-14T13:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/2012\/05\/chef-challenge-follow-up---winners-announced.html"},"modified":"2017-11-08T13:34:04","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T18:34:04","slug":"chef-challenge-follow-up-winners-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/2012\/05\/chef-challenge-follow-up-winners-announced\/","title":{"rendered":"Chef Challenge Follow Up &#8211; Winner&#8217;s Announced!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As you saw last week, I posted about the Chef Challenge event to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Capital Region. It was held at the Hampton Inn and Suites, across the street from the Parting Glass this past Thursday evening. Well now that the event is over, I wanted to write a follow up and discuss the challenge. There&#8217;s SO much I want to mention, so bare with me if this entry is a little longer than you&#8217;re used to!<\/p>\n<p> Walking into the event, I was unsure how it would be set up, what the competition would be like, how close we&#8217;d be to the action, etc. I&#8217;ve been to events in the past where you watch a competition from afar and can&#8217;t really see what&#8217;s going on in the actual kitchen. To my surprise, this was much different. The kitchen was centrally located, right in the middle of the room so attendees could stand around and watch, literally on the other side of the hot plate and grill pans.<\/p>\n<p>Before I get into the big competition, let&#8217;s talk about the food tastings that were offered that night. The event included samplings of food from four different local<br \/>\nrestaurants, including Augie&#8217;s (Ballston Spa), Cardona&#8217;s Market (Albany), The Illium<br \/>\nCafe (Troy) and 2Shea Catering at Shaker Ridge Country Club (Loudonville). The attendees of<br \/>\nthe event were asked to sample and vote for their favorite dishes and whoever won over the crowds palate would be crowned next years competitor against this years winner. Pretty cool idea, right?<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, here are some of the shots from the visiting restaurants.<\/p>\n<p>Illium Cafe served mini nachos<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2012\/05\/photo282029.jpg\" alt=\"illium cafe\" class=\"aligncenterone\" height=\"400\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Cardona&#8217;s Market served this traditional Italian dish, pork osso bucco which literally fell off the bone<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2012\/05\/photo281729.jpg\" alt=\"cardona's market\" class=\"aligncenterone\" height=\"400\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Augie&#8217;s dishing out some of their famous cheese tortellini in vodka sauce<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2012\/05\/photo281929.jpg\" alt=\"augie's restaurant\" class=\"aligncenterone\" height=\"400\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p>2Shea Catering offered three samples: Pan-Asian Chicken, mini fillets and coconut fried lobster<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2012\/05\/photo281829.jpg\" alt=\"2shea catering\" class=\"aligncenterone\" height=\"400\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p>My favorite taste? Well that was found at 2Shea&#8217;s station, with their coconut lobster. It was succulent and absolutely delicious. I&#8217;m not gonna lie though, all of these restaurants were rocking that night, with very different tastes at each station but all extremely good. The crowd seemed to agree with me however, and 2Shea Catering won the people&#8217;s choice award and will be attending as a competing chef next year.<\/p>\n<p>Onto the big event, the duel between Albany Chef A.J. Jayapal from The Brown Derby Restaurant and Saratoga Chef John Ireland, previous executive chef at The Wine Bar and current head chef at Panza&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p>I snagged this shot before the competition began of the two chefs chatting<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2012\/05\/photo281629.jpg\" alt=\"chef challenge\" class=\"aligncenterone\" height=\"400\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<div>The competition went like this: Two stations, three courses, one secret ingredient and three judges. The three judges included senior food writer of Times Union, Steve Barnes, Owner and chef of Hattie&#8217;s Restaurant, Chef Jasper Alexander and local food blogger, Dr. John Sconzo.<\/p>\n<p>The secret ingredient was lemon, although I thought it was a pretty easy secret ingredient to tackle. Anyway, here are the images from Chef Jayapar&#8217;s dishes.<\/p>\n<p>Halved tomatoes marinated in a simmered blueberry sauce, topped with greens<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2012\/05\/photo282129.jpg\" alt=\"jayapal app\" class=\"aligncenterone\" height=\"400\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Beet juice couscous with marinated lamb<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2012\/05\/photo281129.jpg\" alt=\"jayapal entree\" class=\"aligncenterone\" height=\"400\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Chocolate cake and white chocolate ice cream with a shot of baileys on the side<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2012\/05\/photo28929.jpg\" alt=\"jayapal dessert\" class=\"aligncenterone\" height=\"400\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now onto Chef Ireland&#8217;s three courses.<\/p>\n<p>Chef Ireland is preparing his appetizer here, steamed asparagus and bacon in a lemon fish sauce<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2012\/05\/photo2020.jpg\" alt=\"ireland app\" class=\"aligncenterone\" height=\"400\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Marinated lamb with ribbon zucchini<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2012\/05\/photo281229.jpg\" alt=\"ireland entree\" class=\"aligncenterone\" height=\"400\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A light and fresh citrus cheesecake crumble<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2012\/05\/photo281029.jpg\" alt=\"ireland dessert\" class=\"aligncenterone\" height=\"400\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\nAs if you couldn&#8217;t tell by the images, I was standing across from each chef at different points, watching their every move. It was pretty awesome being able to see them think as they developed each flavor of the dish they were preparing.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the decision was made, and Chef Ireland from Panza&#8217;s in Saratoga took home the giant spatula and the win. And no, the spatula part is not a joke (look below on the right side).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2012\/05\/photo28829.jpg\" alt=\"chef challenge hug\" class=\"aligncenterone\" height=\"400\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\nI was so impressed by this event and the thought that went into making<br \/>\nit so exciting for the people who attended. I will finish this entry by<br \/>\nsaying that I hope this is an event I can attend for many years to come,<br \/>\n and I truly hope next year I will see more of you there!\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As you saw last week, I posted about the Chef Challenge event to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Capital Region. It was held at the Hampton Inn and Suites, across the street from the Parting Glass this past&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":9387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[5,8,13,14,16,18,27,29,34,47,51],"class_list":["post-10247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-event","category-restaurant","tag-albany","tag-big-brothers-big-sisters","tag-challenge","tag-charity","tag-chef","tag-competition","tag-event","tag-food","tag-lemon","tag-restaurant","tag-saratoga"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Chef Challenge Follow Up - Winner&#039;s Announced! - Eat Your Heart Out: A Saratoga Restaurant &amp; Dining Blog By Ashley Dingeman<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/2012\/05\/chef-challenge-follow-up-winners-announced\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chef Challenge Follow Up - Winner&#039;s Announced! - Eat Your Heart Out: A Saratoga Restaurant &amp; Dining Blog By Ashley Dingeman\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As you saw last week, I posted about the Chef Challenge event to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Capital Region. It was held at the Hampton Inn and Suites, across the street from the Parting Glass this past...\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/2012\/05\/chef-challenge-follow-up-winners-announced\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Eat Your Heart Out: A Saratoga Restaurant &amp; Dining Blog By Ashley Dingeman\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-14T13:14:48+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-11-08T18:34:04+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2012\/05\/photo282029.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"961\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"961\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ashley Dingeman\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ashley Dingeman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/2012\/05\/chef-challenge-follow-up-winners-announced\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/2012\/05\/chef-challenge-follow-up-winners-announced\/\",\"name\":\"Chef Challenge Follow Up - Winner's Announced! - Eat Your Heart Out: A Saratoga Restaurant &amp; Dining Blog By Ashley Dingeman\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/2012\/05\/chef-challenge-follow-up-winners-announced\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/2012\/05\/chef-challenge-follow-up-winners-announced\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2012\/05\/photo282029.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-14T13:14:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-11-08T18:34:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6a91db59a24e480ce15393c60fed2f62\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/2012\/05\/chef-challenge-follow-up-winners-announced\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/2012\/05\/chef-challenge-follow-up-winners-announced\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/2012\/05\/chef-challenge-follow-up-winners-announced\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2012\/05\/photo282029.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2012\/05\/photo282029.jpg\",\"width\":961,\"height\":961},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/2012\/05\/chef-challenge-follow-up-winners-announced\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Chef Challenge Follow Up &#8211; Winner&#8217;s Announced!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/\",\"name\":\"Eat Your Heart Out: A Saratoga Restaurant &amp; Dining Blog By Ashley Dingeman\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6a91db59a24e480ce15393c60fed2f62\",\"name\":\"Ashley Dingeman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/restaurant-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/08f035c428f58fd7f665d29cbeb8acde?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/08f035c428f58fd7f665d29cbeb8acde?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ashley Dingeman\"},\"description\":\"My name is Ashley Dingeman and I am in love with food. A recent SUNY Geneseo graduate and Saratoga Springs native, it has always been a dream of mine to have the opportunity to do the two things I do best: eat &amp; write. Just like in a Disney movie, I guess dreams really do come true. First off, can I just say that my passion for food goes way beyond simply loving to eat. For some, eating is eating and food is food, but to me, it\u2019s so much more. Every element of the food experience, I love. Perhaps the profound effects of growing up in an Italian family have rubbed off on me. If there was one thing I learned in the process, it was that food brings people together, and where there\u2019s food, there\u2019s family. No, I didn\u2019t grow up in The Olive Garden, but I did grow up privileged to have an incredible Grandmother, and the best cook I\u2019ve ever known. To this day no one will ever be able to replicate her Sunday \u201cgravy\u201d, even though all grandchildren have come close (and some closer than others [me]). It was she who inspired me to begin cooking in the first place, and it is in her honor that I continue on in hopes of inspiring others the same way. So I invite you now to revel in my words, devour my descriptions, fantasize over my photographs, and maybe just maybe, you\u2019ll be move enough to go out and try something for yourself. 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A recent SUNY Geneseo graduate and Saratoga Springs native, it has always been a dream of mine to have the opportunity to do the two things I do best: eat &amp; write. Just like in a Disney movie, I guess dreams really do come true. First off, can I just say that my passion for food goes way beyond simply loving to eat. For some, eating is eating and food is food, but to me, it\u2019s so much more. Every element of the food experience, I love. Perhaps the profound effects of growing up in an Italian family have rubbed off on me. If there was one thing I learned in the process, it was that food brings people together, and where there\u2019s food, there\u2019s family. No, I didn\u2019t grow up in The Olive Garden, but I did grow up privileged to have an incredible Grandmother, and the best cook I\u2019ve ever known. To this day no one will ever be able to replicate her Sunday \u201cgravy\u201d, even though all grandchildren have come close (and some closer than others [me]). 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