Max London Wins 2nd Iron Chef Competition
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One of our favorite Guest Foodies, Jake Van Ness (you can see his recipes and posts here) went to this morning’s Iron Chef Competition at the Saratoga Springs Farmers’ Market. Here is his report along with some great pictures!
Chef Max London of Max London’s defended his title this morning, taking the top chef honor in an Iron Chef Competition against Bryan Walsh of One Caroline Street Bistro. The competition was held at the Saratoga Springs Farmer’s Market.
In it’s 4th year, the Iron Chef Competition pinned two of the areas top chefs against each other. Taking place in the heart of the busy Saratoga Springs Farmers’ Market in downtown Saratoga, New York. Max London and Bryan Walsh were each provided with four mystery ingredients and given 15 minutes, along with $30 to purchase additional items at the local vendors with in the farmers market. It was a fierce cooking battle on what turned out to be a perfect, crisp Autumn morning.
The chefs each prepared their meals on the amazing Evo American Grill provided by Tom Thibeault, Jr., owner of Adirondack Appliance. These grills were the talk of the crowd. They were any outdoor grill masters dream machine. Tom shared with me that his business is the only one in the area to feature the Evo American Grill and he said he feels they are one of the best products he has ever seen. They were truly impressive and both chefs boasted about how they too thought they were outstanding.
Now let’s talk about the food!
The four mystery items were: Fish from Pura Vida Fisheries, Beef Sausage from M&A Farm, Ginger from Kilpatrick Family Farm and Swiss Chard from Pleasant Valley Farm. All local vendors at the farmers market.
We will start with Max London who prepared three dishes for the judges. He started them off with a flat bread sandwich made with his own pizza dough, the smoked sausage, grilled eggplant, cilantro mint, spicy orange aoli and topped with a bit of radish. He suggested folding it and eating it like a sandwich.
For his second dish Max prepared grilled, nicely browned fish over the swiss chard cooked in ginger and garlic,along with shiitake mushrooms. Topped off with quick pickled swiss chard stems.
For his dessert dish (or what could have been a breakfast dish) Max stated he wanted to prepare something especially fitting for the Evo American Grill. He prepared a beautiful ginger maple french toast where there was ginger in the soaking cream and it was topped off with a ginger infused maple syrup. Placed on top of a bit of apple sauce and garnished with a bit of caramelized honey crisp apples.
Of the dishes Max London prepared I was fortunate enough to try a very tiny piece of the flat bread sandwich. Nothing short of WOW! It was amazing but ultra disappointing to realize that the tiny piece would be all I could get to enjoy.
Bryan Walsh’s presentation consisted of two dishes. His first dish was a bruschetta with smoked honey crisp apples, petroni cheese and cubed sausage with a glaze made from apple cider.
For his main course he prepared pan seared fish with Adirondack blue potatoes, ginger de blanca and sauteed swiss chard.
I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to sample a very small piece of the fish and it tasted as impressive as it all smelled. Bryan’s plating was beautiful and colorful. He definitely stepped up to the challenge and gave Max London some great competition.
The two chefs presented their dishes to three judges. Annette Neilson who is a local food editor and food advocate, John Sconzo who is President of Slow Food Saratoga Region and food blogger and Eric Lovenduski who is a local foodie and friend of the market.
Max London will return next year to compete for a 3rd time in the Iron Chef Competition at the Saratoga Springs Farmers Market against a yet to be named opponent. With two wins under his belt already Max is bound to meet someone itching to replace him as the top chef in the annual Iron Chef Competition at Saratoga Springs Farmers Market.
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