Last month the American Lamb Board invited a group of ten food bloggers and amateur chefs to a party in Ballard to pick up their "mystery cut" of the featured meat for the first-ever Lamb Pro-Am. In the course of the following week, the bloggers prepared original recipes and wrote about them. The Lamb Board's PR team, Peha Promotions, created a website with the recipes and put out a release inviting the public to cast their votes.
Results were announced yesterday: four bloggers have advanced to the next round, the regional Pro-Am finals. A heavyweight lineup of professional chefs will now take the amateurs under their wings.
- Chef Bobby Moore of The Barking Frog will team up with Mark Michael of "The Seattle Cook," who grilled a leg of lamb on his barbecue.
- Chef Mark Bodinet of Copperleaf Restaurant will mentor Anna Berman of "Snacking in the Kitchen," whose recipe was an inside-out lamb roulade.
- Naomi Bishop, who writes "Gastro Gnome," will work with Chef Jason Stoneburner of Bastille on her recipe for Chinese lamb skewers
- And yours truly, who contributes to Eater.com as well as Cornichon, will partner with Alex Paguaga of Suncadia Lodge to recreate my recipe of seared lamb cubes rubbed with coffee, garlic and cumin.
As the winner of last year's Lamb Jam, Paguaga heads to San Francisco later this month to pit his skills against chefs from three other west coast cities in a competition sponsored by Sunset Magazine.
Pro-Am Finals, Wednesday, October 10th, 6:30-8:30pm at
Cedarbrook Lodge, 18525 36th Ave. S. Seattle, WA 98188. Tickets $25.
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