The Tasting Panel magazine

June 2016

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sandwich, burger, dessert, bacon, seafood, steak and a "recipe" category based on a food theme. The theme for 2016 is breakfast. The winner of each category gets to the final table and wins $10,000. One last competition determines the World Champion and snags them the hundred grand. Chef's Plate Napa was hosted by the Culinary Institute of America at its newly-purchased Copia facility. Copia closed seven years ago when the Great Recession hit and has lain fallow since. CIA paid $12.5 million for it, a sum considered by many to be a bargain as it's a big, well-equipped temple of food and wine, with venues sprawling across several levels. The night kicked off with a cocktail hour with libations from Hestan Vineyards and Nolet's Gin paired with artisan salami from Creminelli Fine Meats. The event was staged in Copia's amphitheater, where rows of tables and chairs look down on a large kitchen that serves as the stage. Wine flowed freely during the event. Jean-Charles Boisset's Raymond Vineyards offered crisp Sauvignon Blancs and unoaked Chardonnays, while Robert Mondavi Winery poured reds, including a 1988 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve with a huge depth of fruit and a gorgeous bouquet of age. It's easy to see what the World Food Championships gets from an event like this, but what about Chef's Roll? Cindy Lasar, the Roll's Director of Strategic Partnerships, who was instrumental in putting Chef's Plate Napa together, says that the purpose of the event from her perspective "is to promote chefs, ingredients, food products and sponsors, from the locality if possible—to introduce them to one another and among the food industry and media." Here's how it worked: Each of the three courses featured a required ingredient. The appetizer course's requirement was Baja Seas' hiramasa, provided by Catalina Offshore. Chef Wallace seared his hiramasa and served it on salad greens with a house-made cracker and lime-flavored paddlefish roe, topped with a dab of caviar. Chef Mosher went sushi, serv- ing the fish raw on a rice cracker with a spicy sesame mix and a citrus trio of orange, lemon and grapefruit segments. Heritage chicken (Plymouth Barred Rock breed) from Kansas-based Emmer & Co. was the required ingredient for the main course. Wallace did temptingly good roast chicken and truffled grits enriched with a mushroom ragu. Mosher put his chicken on couscous paired with Brussels sprouts and mushrooms dressed with red wine and caviar. For the dessert course, each chef had Guittard dark chocolate to work with. Chef Wallace did a chocolate hazelnut tart with hazelnut brittle, while Chef Mosher made a dark chocolate torte with dried cherries and vanilla bean crème fraîche. Other ingredients were supplied by California Caviar, Salute Santé! Grapeseed Oil, Far West Funghi, Sparrow Lane Artisan Vinegar and the CIA's garden in St. Helena. The judging panel included Chef Roland Passot of La Folie in San Francisco and Left Bank in Marin County; Chef Ken Frank of La Toque in Napa; Victor Scargle, Executive Chef at Copia; Michael Murphy, Director Of Culinary Development at If Only; Kari Ruel, Publisher of Napa Valley Life magazine; Sally James, food-wine-travel writer and radio host; and Mike McCloud, CEO of World Food Championships. Oh—who won the Golden Ticket? Chef Jeff Mosher, the choice of the judge's panel and the crowd's votes, too. See you in 'Bama, Jeff. The winner: Chef Jeff Mosher of Mondavi, with his trophy and a chance to win $100,000 at the World Food Championships in Orange Beach, Alabama, in November. Chef Jeff Mosher's sushi-esque raw hiramasa appetizer, served on a rice cracker with a sesame-spice mix, avocado, baby greens and a trio of citrus segments.

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