Temperatures may have dropped into the 70s at the Inner Harbor Friday, but in the Star Spangled Spectacular’s Chesapeake Bay Demo Kitchen and Brew Garden, things were definitely heating up.
Chefs who travel around the world on eight visiting Navy vessels were challenged to create both a main dish and a side dish using a bushel of local produce in only one hour.
The required ingredients—provided by local businesses like A&R Seafood and Martin Family Farms—included Maryland crab, fresh rockfish, goat sausage, chorizo, bangers, and bratwurst.
As time went on, the growing crowds started making their predictions.
“My team’s gonna win,” said Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Goggin of the Royal Canadian Navy, as he cheered on the chefs representing Canada’s HMCS Athabaskan making a grilled corn salsa gremolata with infused crab oil. “Canada loves Baltimore. I’ve been to a lot of fleet weeks and Baltimore has fantastic hospitality; we’re having a lot of fun.”
Smells of pan-seared rockfish and crab ceviche permeated as the individual ingredients began to transform into gourmet dishes, and, before long, time was up.
The six judges, including WBAL’s Megan Pringle and Mix 106.5’s Reagan Warfield, sat down to examine the taste and presentation of each team’s dish. The votes were tallied and, ultimately, the victory went to the chef’s representing Turkey’s TGS Kemalreis, who fused the local ingredients into their dish comprised of rockfish, lamb kabobs, stuffed peppers, a vegetable medley, and baklava.
“They made this vegetable medley that was to die for,” Warfield said. “You could tell that they wanted to win.”
Turkey’s team, who was rumored to have been egging on other teams at a reception the night before the cook-off, was ecstatic about their win.
“We’re very happy,” said Emre Gursoy, a translator for the TGS Kemalreis. “They took the competition very seriously and now we will enjoy our success.”