UPDATE, April 30th: The Seattle winner, Sarah Schafer, won the regional round in Los Angeles and was one of the two chefs sent to cook at the Derby this weekend.
The fish, ten pounds apiece, arrive fresh (never frozen, no rigor mortis) in recyclable boxes, noble animals worthy of reverence and respect. These are Skuna Bay salmon, raised in artisan fish-farms on the west coast of Vancouver Island, where they thrive in the icy waters of Nootka Sound. We wrote about the Skuna Bay operation six months ago, when the "product" was introduced to the Seattle market. (If you have the slightest concern about "farm-raised" salmon, please click on the link and read the article.) Skuna Bay has also been named the official salmon at James Beard House in New York, and at the Kentucky Derby.
Okay, who knew that the Derby had a "salmon of choice"? But they do, and in less than a month there's going to be an extravagant charity dinner in Louisville to kick off Derby weekend. Before that, though, a "Skuna-Chef Challenge" for 28 participants nationwide whose recipes were selected by a preliminary panel. And yesterday, at the Market Atrium's well-equipped kitchen, a Pacific Northwest cook-off between three fine contestants: Stephen Paulson (the soon-to-open BAR 7), Sarah Schafer (Portland's Irving Street Kitchen), and Varin Keokitvon (head chef at FareStart). Chef John Howie, the first Seattle chef to embrace Skuna Bay salmon, was one of the three judges; EatinSeattle.com contributor Autumn Loomthong and your faithful scribe Cornichon were the others.
All three contestants showed great technical skill and plenty of imagination. Stephen's presentation was drop-dead gorgeous; Varin's seared and oven-baked salmon was beautifully moist and tender; Sarah's gravlax exquisitely fragrant. How to decide, how to decide?
I feel like I'm at the judges' table on Top Chef, but I'll let you in on my thinking, which I shared with the event organizers.
Chef Stephen's gorgeous crispy-skinned salmon dish had no fewer than 12 elements on the plate in addition to the fish: two kinds of beets (yellow, red), celery root, mushrooms, watermelon blossoms, crème fraîche, horseradish, four green garnishes (dill, parsley, chives, mint) and a carrot-lavender sauce. Visually dazzling, insanely colorful, and all of it distracting. Besides which, I couldn't taste or smell any lavender.
Chef Varin's southeast-Asian salmon was an ambitious tour-de-force: a red curry butternut squash, a shower of lightly sauteed kale, a lime-coconut foam, tobiko, mustard seeds, tamarind paste, and a crunchy lime-glaze cracker, all surrounding a perfectly baked cut of spice-rubbed salmon. But I found the curry lacked zing, the foam was creamy but light on coconut, and the kale was almost irrelevant.
Chef Sarah's gravlax, on the other hand, hit all the right notes. Thinly sliced, mild but aromatic (the herbsaint!), it was accompanied by a creole-style aïoli and a crisp, peppery strip of salmon skin (at her restaurant in Portland, she serves this dish with a rye cracker instead). Also on the plate: a smoked-potato latke fresh out of the fryer, accompanied by a generous scoop of Skuna Bay salmon caviar and a dab of sour cream. Unlike the dishes served by the other chefs, you knew which elements to eat together; all I wanted was a glass of Champagne.
When the scores were added up, I was happy to see that Chef Sarah had won the day; she'll go on to the regional semi-final in Los Angeles next week. From there, the winner will be whisked off to the finals in Louisville, VIP seating at the Derby, and replicating the winning dish for a thousand mouths at the Skuna Bay station. This time, with bubbles, for sure. Cheers!
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