Once again, I was honored to be a judge at the "Taste of Elegance" chefs competition at the 2009 Denver International Wine Festival. As was the case last year, each competitor is given a bottle of red and a bottle of white in advance to taste and then create two dishes to pair with those wines -- wines that had previously place in September's Denver Wine Competition. We judges were charged with evaluating dishes based on presentation, tasted and food/wine compatibility to come up with the best overall chef and the most creative chef.
Chris Davies CEO of Wine Country International, which runs the festival, took the picture, below, of us judges just before we set off on our appointed tasting rounds. We discussed whether to stick together or split apart and decided to move from station to station in a cluster so that the chefs would only have to describe their dishes just once. Below, from left, Hosea Rosenberg of Jax Fish House, Boulder, and winner of last season's "Top Chef" honors, moi, Amanda Faison of 5280 magazine and Teresa Farney of the Colorado Springs Gazette. We did not look quite so perky after we had tasted two dishes from each chef and wines to match -- plus Belgian beers.
Wine glasses ready for the sell-out crowd of 400 at the entrance to the festival, which this year moved to Mile High Station, a new events facility.
Before 6:00 p.m. when the public was allowed in, the competing chefs and their teams worked quickly and quietly to stage their two dishes.
There was only so much I could do at the same time -- tasting, evaluating, snapping quick pictures and scribbing notes in the hopes of matching images with restaurants and chefs. It was beyond my multi-tasting talents to do it all, so below are just some of the dishes we tasted. I can identify some but not all, so I won't label any. Just know that there was a lot of good food, a lot of well-thought-out plating and a lot of care displayed by "Taste of Elegance" chefs.
Attendees milled around, also tasting and sipping, often with considerably less restraint than those of us who had a job to do.
Let me tell you that the decision was difficult. There was a lot of good food preapred by local culinary talents. In the end, we selected Robert Corey of Sandoval's Kitchen, Denver as Most Creative Chef and Michael Long of Opus, Littleton as Best Chef. Jean-Luc Voegele of the Westin Tabor Center, Denver took the People's Choice award. Congratulations to all.
Last year, I managed to write a post immmediately after the festival, and you might want to read it for a backgrounder. Other than the venue and the number of chefs competing, the format was largely the same both years.
2009 Taste of Elegance Chefs
Jeff Bolton, Second Home, JW Marriott, Denver
Chad Clevenger, Mel's Bar and Grill, Greenwood Village
Austin Cueto, Restaurant Kevin Taylor, Denver
Robert Corey, Sandoval's Kitchen (overall Best Chef winner)
Eliza Goodwill, 221 South Oak, Telluride
David Harker, Meritage, Omni Interlocken, Broomfield
Daniel Joly, Mirabelle Restaurant, Avon/Beaver Creek
DeWayne Lieurance, 5280 Chef/Clandestine Chef
Michael Long, Opus Restaurant, Littleton (named Most Creative Chef)
David Olivieri, Farraday's Steakhouse, Isle of Capri Casino & Hotel, Black Hawk
Eric Riviera, LaLa's Wine Bar & Pizza, Denver
Eric Skokan, Black Cat Bistro, Boulder
Jeremy Thomas, Parisi's Italian Market & Deli and Firenze a Tavola, Denver
Jean-Luc Voegele, Westin Tabor Center, Denver (People's Choice winner)
Kelly Yepello, Yepello Chocolates & Confections, Steamboat Springs