Test of The Best

Four of the Seattle area’s finest club chefs prepared for the Fourth Annual Club Chef Competition on April 7, 2009 at the Women’s University Club in downtown Seattle. At stake: a $3000.00 scholarship for an accredited American Culinary Federation program and the title of Evergreen Club Chef of the Year.

by Maria Domann, CCM, General Manager, Everett Golf & Country Club (editor@clubandresortbusiness.com)
May 2009
 

The excitement in the air was palatable as four of the Seattle area’s finest club chefs prepared for the Fourth Annual Club Chef Competition on April 7, 2009 at the Women’s University Club in downtown Seattle. At stake: a $3,000 scholarship from the Evergreen Chapter of the Club Managers Association of America for an accredited American Culinary Federation program, as well as the bragging rights that would go with the title of “Evergreen Chapter Club Chef of the Year.”

Over 110 guests enjoyed the evening’s festivities, which included a wine tasting with Covington Cellars of Woodlinville, Wash.; a lavish array of appetizers, and a dinner buffet provided by Sysco of Seattle. Also featured was a presentation from the 2008 Club Chef winner, Chef Sean Rogers of the Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle, who shared with the group his experience at Club and Resort Business’s inaugural Chef to Chef Conference at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas (C&RB, April 2009). 

“He said that the event was beneficial, as he enjoyed discussing industry trends and challenges on a one-on-one basis with a group of his contemporaries,” says Maria Domann, CCM, General Manager of Everett (Wash.) Golf & Country Club. “He also told the group that club managers and assistant managers would benefit from the experience, as the curriculum was geared as much toward managers as it was toward culinarians.”

The 2009 Chef Competition featured four competing chefs: Chef Adam Hagen of Canterwood Golf & Country Club (Gig Harbor, Wash.); Sous Chef Eric Conner of Overlake Golf & Country Club (Medina, Wash.); Chef Jeremy Cockerham of Rainier Golf & Country Club (Seattle, Wash.); and Chef John Satko, CEC, of Everett Golf & Country Club.

Judging the competitors were Rogers, as the previous year’s winner, plus other area chefs including: Chef Dan Lewark, CEC, ACE, of Sand Point Country Club (Seattle); Chef Blair King of The Brooklyn, Steak, Seafood and Oyster House; and Chef Dan Thiessen, owner of the 08/Seafood Grill and Twisted Cork Wine Bar. The judges based their scores on creativity, presentation, culinary technique, taste/flavor balance, organization, food handling, workflow, and time management.

Each chef was asked to prepare an appetizer and an entrée that would appeal to their club’s membership at a price point members would be willing to pay. This year’s theme ingredient was crab. While the competition was fierce, Chef Cockerham of Rainier G&CC ultimately prevailed. His winning menu included a warm crab timbale with melted leeks, julienne Granny Smith apple, and Belgian endive black pepper-apple gastrique as appetizers, and a Dungeness crab agnolotti with Jerusalem artichoke sauce, asparagus rondelles, and fresh pea shoots as the entrée.