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The L.A. County Fair will hold its inaugural Chefs on the Rise culinary competition this year, with semi-finals on Saturday, May 14, and finals during the L.A. County Fair in September. The competition will spotlight up-and-coming chefs in southern California. The Fair is looking for chefs who are particularly skilled at pairing wine and food.
Chefs on the Rise is a celebration of the role that fine wine and food plays in the enhancement of everyday life. Recipes must effectively blend flavor and textural elements of wine and food and feature ingredients and instructions that can easily be replicated by home cooks. The competition is being established in conjunction with the prestigious L.A. County Fair Wines of the World and Olive Oils of the World competitions, which will be held May 11-13 at Fairplex in Pomona.
Chefs on the Rise is open to professional chefs who work in public restaurants and have not held an executive chef position for more than one year. Competition entry requires submission of recipes with photographs for two dishes, each developed for pairing with a sauvignon blanc and a cabernet sauvignon and at least one using olive oil. Submission deadline is April 20.
A maximum of 18 semi-finalists will be selected. Semi-finalists will compete in a cook-off May 14 at The Collins School of Hospitality Management on the campus of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. The finalist competition will include both demonstrations and a cook-off by the competitors for the judges and the public at the ConAgra Gourmet Kitchen at the L.A. County Fair, Sept. 10 and 11. Awards include $1,000 and a gold medal for first place for each wine varietal and $500 and a silver medal for second, also for each varietal.
For a complete list of the rules, visit the Web site at www.lacountyfair.com. For more information, email competition coordinator Jerald Chesser at jwchesser@fairplex.com or call him at (909) 869-3535.
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