Counting Down to Feast Portland: Best Butcher Contest & Fishmonger Face Off

August 19, 2013 by 6 Comments

This post is part of my series “Counting Down to Feast Portland” where I talk about events I plan to attend as part of this 4 day food and drink festival September 19-22, 2013. The goal of Feast Portland is to raise money for two Portland charity partners focused on fighting hunger: Share Our Strength and Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon. Disclaimer: I was granted a Bloggers Pass for Feast Portland 2013, and asked to help promote Feast but they did not require that I write this post and I am not otherwise being compensated.

Update – After attending the event, you can see my recap here

Previously: I highlighted the Oregon Bounty Grand Tasting food festival scheduled for Sept 20 and 21 and also wrote of my excitement for the Sandwich Invitational on Sept 19 and then had to go get a sandwich to recover after writing that post.

The previous two events I highlighted might have a ticket price (and remember, they are trying to raise money for charity after all), but not every Feast event does. One of the new events this year for Feast is the Whole Foods Market Best Butcher Contest & Fishmonger Face Off. This is a FREE event! The event takes place as part of Feast Portland on Saturday, Sept 21st 11:00am – 2:00pm at Director Park. There will be surf and turf samples provided by Whole Foods Market’s meat and seafood partners, so don’t worry about watching all that deliciousness and only wondering conceptually about the product.

The Best Butcher Contest & Fishmonger Face Off are two branches of regional competitions by Whole Foods Market that are held all over the country. Last year, the Best Butcher contest included whittling down 300 butchers to just 3 (representing the west, central, and east regions of the US) that made it to New York City to be crowned at the the 2nd annual Best Butcher competition at Meatopia. Tasks they had to rise to for the competition included crafting a turducken (duck stuffed inside a chicken stuffed inside a turkey), merchandising a whole lamb, and creating a new cut of beef steak, chop or roast! Best Butcher 2012 Armand ”The Arm” Ferrante will be defending his title. You can read more about Best Butcher Contest 2012 here at the Whole Foods Blog.

Meanwhile, the 1st annual Fishmonger Faceoff of 2012 ended with the Golden Trident being awarded at Food & Wine Classic Aspen, as you can read here about the Fishmonger Face Off at the Whole Foods Blog. Fishmonger Winner Bob “The Fish Guy” Reany had to cut and fillet a certified Wild Alaska Salmon in 3 minutes- and he did it in 90 seconds! Both winners of the Best Butcher and Fishmonger Faceoff had about 40 years of experience each- we’re talking about masters of meat or fish! Check out the awesome nicknames of the fishmongers who competed last year in this 1 minute video of the 2012 finalists- will we be seeing some of them this year?

This year, the final for the Best Butcher Contest & Fishmonger Face Off are BOTH coming to Feast and Portland! It’s serious technique required to know where to cut and to cut quickly, but they also will be judged on “swagger” in knife skills. It should be exciting to watch them throw in showmanship while working with the blade and with still an eye on quality of cuts and quantity of yield of product!

Who knows… is one of the butchers and fishmongers we see at this event going to be one from your neighborhood Whole Foods and providing you with the finest cuts of meat and fish?
Meat + Poultry section of Whole Foods Pearl... Is one of the butchers and fishmongers we see at Best Butcher Contest & Fishmonger Face Off at Feast Portland 2013 going to be one from your neighborhood Whole Foods and providing you with the finest cuts of meat and fish? Seafood section of Whole Foods Pearl... Is one of the butchers and fishmongers we see at Best Butcher Contest & Fishmonger Face Off at Feast Portland 2013 going to be one from your neighborhood Whole Foods and providing you with the finest cuts of meat and fish?

Butchery and Fishmongering is an art that seemed like it was being lost for a while into uniform piles of plastic wrapped hunks of meat in a cooler, but thankfully it has been making a comeback. People are returning to wanting to appreciate where the food comes from, and use all of the animal, which is evidenced by the rise of butchery classes in the past year in Portland. So it seems like the perfect place to hold these Best Butcher Contest & Fishmonger Face Off finals.

Camas Davis of Portland Meat Collective gives a class on butchering a pig at Feast Portland 2012
Above: Photos from last year’s Feast PDX Basic Pig Butchery class with Portland Meat Collective’s Camas Davis. This class is back this year but already sold out! Photo Credit: Feast Portland CopyrightAll rights reserved by Feast Portland

Description from the Feast website: After months of regional competitions at Whole Foods Market stores across the country, 12 butchers and fishmonger finalists are sharpening their knives to go head-to-tail for the glory of being named best in their craft. Come watch the sparks fly as the butcher and fishmonger finalists battle their way to the top. Finalists will be judged by an expert panel that includes top chefs and media on presentation, craftsmanship and swagger in dazzling demos of knife work. Sample some surf-and-turf from Whole Foods Market’s meat and seafood partners, pause for some live music, snap a picture in the photo booth, and even learn a thing or two about high-quality meat and sustainable seafood.

Camas Davis of Portland Meat Collective gives a class on butchering a pig at Feast Portland 2012 Copyright All rights reserved by Feast Portland Camas Davis of Portland Meat Collective gives a class on butchering a pig at Feast Portland 2012 Copyright All rights reserved by Feast Portland
Photo Credit: Feast Portland CopyrightAll rights reserved by Feast Portland

Disclosure: I was granted a Bloggers Pass for Feast Portland 2013, and asked to help promote Feast but they did not require that I write this post and I am not otherwise being compensated. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own, and I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences regardless of whether they were complimentary or not.

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Tapas: Prosciutto Cantaloupe Recipe

August 18, 2013 by 16 Comments

I was pretty excited mid-July to sign up for a meetup with PDX Food Bloggers. This awesome free event on August 17 was being hosted at Whole Foods in the Pearl, and included awesome sponsors such as Tiny Prints, Rebekah from PDX Food Love, Fabiola from Not Just Baked, and Jenni from A Well Craft Party. To give a fun little twist, the meetup event included Justin from Whole Foods giving us a little background and tastings of wine and a Spanish cheese, and a casual tapas competition for the guest food bloggers attending!

PDX Food Bloggers and Whole Foods Portland hosted a wonderful Tapas & Wine event PDX Food Bloggers and Whole Foods Portland hosted a wonderful Tapas & Wine event

We started out with a very light and refreshing white, Marques de Gelida Brut Reserva Cava 2009. Then, my mind was blown with the buttery color and round soft but acidic backbone flavors of the 2003 R. López de Heredia Vina Tondonia Vinos Finos de Rioja Vina Gravonia 2003. It’s very rare to find such a complex white. I would have brought some home but I already was carrying a lot to take on the streetcar- but I will be back to add this to my wine cellar.

Next was a Dehesa La Granja 2006, and I appreciated that this Tempranillo was not fruit forward but reveled in its more woody, tannic richness. We finished with a bright Manzanilla La Gitana sherry. Then Bee (of The Spicy Bee) was telling us a little bit about how tapas originated, and it was time to go around the room and sample all the entries!

PDX Food Bloggers and Whole Foods Portland hosted a wonderful Tapas & Wine event / getting educated about 4 Spanish wines! PDX Food Bloggers and Whole Foods Portland hosted a wonderful Tapas & Wine event / getting educated about 4 Spanish wines! PDX Food Bloggers and Whole Foods Portland hosted a wonderful Tapas & Wine event / getting educated about 4 Spanish wines! Bee of Spicy Bee telling us a bit about Tapas / PDX Food Bloggers and Whole Foods Portland hosted a wonderful Tapas & Wine event

For my contribution, although I admit my favorite to go order at any Spanish tapas if available are always the patatas bravas and the tortilla, I decided to go with something simpler. Something that for instance, wouldn’t require cooking AT ALL. What came to mind was a Prosciutto Cantaloupe recipe. But, I wanted to expand on the sweet fresh fruit and salty fatty taste of the prosciutto cantaloupe by adding some spiciness and hint of citrus acid, as well as a little bit more savory, with red pepper lime oil and manchego!

Prosciutto wrapped Cantaloupe with Red Pepper Lime Oil and Manchego (serves 20, ~2 pieces each)

Prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe with red pepper lime oil and manchego recipe Prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe with red pepper lime oil and manchego recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 cantaloupe. You can also use any melon you wish, such as honeydew
  • 16 pieces of prosciutto or parma ham, or other thinly sliced cured meat of your choice – this equaled 2 packages for me
  • 4 teaspoons of olive oil
  • Juice of 1/2 lime- I think this ended up being about 2.5 – 3 teaspoons for me?
  • 2 teaspoons of red pepper flakes
  • 4 ounces of Manchego cheese or other Spanish cheese of your choice, or you could try another hard but bold cheese like Asiago
  • 1 teaspoon of rosemary
  • freshly ground pepper, to taste

Directions:

  1. The first thing I do is prepare the red pepper lime oil. I took the olive oil, lime juice and 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes and whisk them gently together and let the red pepper flakes flavor the lime oil.
  2. Then you can start your slicing of the cantaloupe from the rind, remove the seeds, and cut into 1 inch pieces, which yielded about almost 50 pieces I think for me. Maybe some wound up small and I ate some. Ahem. Here’s a useful 1 min Youtube video on cutting cantaloupe if you need it, though it stops at creating 1/8 of a melon sized slices, and then you need to cut 4 pieces from each slice that are about an inch each.
    Prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe with red pepper lime oil and manchego recipe: cutting 1 inch long cantaloupe pieces
  3. For the prosciutto, the pieces I had were pretty wide (probably 3 inches wide) so I sliced them into thirds, you may only need to slice yours in half. Wrap each slice of prosciutto around each piece of melon. Don’t worry if perhaps when trying to lift it up some pieces tear- probably you will be able to wrap the prosciutto around slightly more than once anyway, so a little loss can get tucked under the wrap (or… be test pieces for you are the preparer. Quality control you know). It should pretty much stick by itself to the melon.
    Prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe with red pepper lime oil and manchego recipe: wrapping the prosciutto around the cantaloupe pieces Prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe with red pepper lime oil and manchego recipe: wrapping the prosciutto around the cantaloupe pieces
  4. Next, I lightly brushed on the spicy lime oil on the top side of the wrapped melon. I cut up the manchego into small pieces that I could then place on the top, and brushed with the spicy lime oil again, and then speared with a toothpick to keep them together for convenience for those eating.
    Prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe with red pepper lime oil and manchego recipe: preparing to brush on the spicy lime oil and top with manchego Prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe with red pepper lime oil and manchego recipe: preparing to brush on the spicy lime oil and top with manchego
  5. Arrange all of these on a plate, and sprinkle the last 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (or less, depending on how spicy you want it and how potent your flakes are) and the 1 teaspoon rosemary, and finally the freshly ground pepper.
    Prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe with red pepper lime oil and manchego recipe Prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe with red pepper lime oil and manchego recipe

Another recipe you can prepare while simultaneously say, watching Project Runway as you prep it. And look how fancy it looks! AND, I won 3rd place! I think a bit of it has to do with luck as I believe there was a 5 way tie after 1st and 2nd, and I was just lucky that my dish card got randomly pulled (and how clever was it for there to already be printed cards for people to write their dish name, ingredients, etc- so prepared and helpful and stylish!). I’m going to write about what was in my prize, and the goodie bag, at another time. But, also, I did think the use of that spicy lime oil is an unexpected (but easy!) upgrade to this dish.
Prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe with red pepper lime oil and manchego recipe Prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe with red pepper lime oil and manchego recipe

I actually had another cut set of cantaloupe that did not have prosciutto on it for vegetarians, but then I left it at home (and F ate it all!). But, I’m sure you’ll be more considerate that I was. And meanwhile, look at this wonderful plate of the samples I was able to enjoy from our little tapas walkaround, sampling everyone’s creations! It was so hard to vote that I was so glad when Jenni said we could get 5 marbles to vote with instead of 3, and even then it was so hard. Everyone made such delicious and beautiful bites.

PDX Food Bloggers and Whole Foods Portland hosted a wonderful Tapas & Wine event, and it included a little tapas competition!

And, yes, that’s totally a cronut over there on the bottom right. I totally went back for a second (from 1/2 of Thyme of Taste– his other baking half won the tapas competition!) to take back home and show F. And eat myself of course.

I also wanted to skip home when Beeb (who I mostly know from one of her many blogs, Cooking Catastrophe) let me take the whole leftover loaf (which btw was enjoyed with friends who helped me polish off the prosciutto cantaloupe leftovers and a bottle of white and 2 beers…). I also confess I went for seconds of the Greek Crostini from Rachel of Tossing the Script and loved the combination of spicy sass yet tropical escape yet so Portland combo of jalapeno with pineapple and wrapped with bacon (SEE?) from Marisa of Margaritas in the Rain. Because you know, I was trying to help everyone out so these ladies wouldn’t have to carry too much home by getting those seconds. That’s me, very helpful and thinking of others.

The Tapas Attendees whose blogs you should be checking as they probably took more photos to fill you in on the event! I think this is everyone- I hope I didn’t inadvertently leave someone out!

Disclosure: This was a complimentary event, but they did not require that I write this review.  The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own, and I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences regardless of whether they were complimentary or not. 
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Photos from the Bite of Oregon 2013

August 16, 2013 by 1 Comment

I generally attend the Bite of Oregon to support Special Olympics, check out the Oregon Chef’s Table which usually has more complex flavors piled into affordable bites ($4 tickets this year), and taste wine. Here are a few photos from this year’s 2013 event, when I attended on Sunday.

Not pictured, us enjoying listening/watching Finn Doxie jam, which is why we picked Sunday as our day to visit.

Some BBQ in progress at Adam’s Rib Smokehouse from Salem. The smell of smoke and meat is so intoxicating! I feel like I could just stand there and smell it for hours. Clearly I can never be vegetarian.
Some BBQ in progress at Adam's Rib Smokehouse from Salem. The smell of smoke and meat is so intoxicating! At Bite of Oregon 2013 Some BBQ in progress at Adam's Rib Smokehouse from Salem. The smell of smoke and meat is so intoxicating! At Bite of Oregon 2013

Cupcake Vineyards had a tasting truck (offering samples of a few of their Cupcake whites and reds) and Live Deliciously lounge. I need to name my house this.
Cupcake Vineyards had a tasting truck (offering samples of a few of their Cupcake whites and reds) and Live Deliciously lounge. I need to name my house this. At Bite of Oregon 2013

Thanks for the free tastes Chobani, it was yummy, I love that there were such different combinations of flavors, and it was awesome to have a healthy snack.
Thanks for the free tastes Chobani, it was yummy, I love that there were such different combinations of flavors! At Bite of Oregon 2013

Oregon Bounty Chef Table, a dish of buffalo mac and cheese with grilled seafood cake, thanks Seafood Oregon Commission.
'Oregon 'Oregon

Pinot Noir braised Oregon beef on polenta with greens from the Oregon Bounty Chef Table, thanks Oregon Beef Council
Pinot Noir braised Oregon beef on polenta with greens from the Oregon Bounty Chef Table, thanks Oregon Beef Council at Bite of Oregon 2013

Another bite from the Oregon Bounty Chef Table, thanks to the Oregon Potato Commission: Oregon Potato Confit Puree with Pomegranate Demi Glaze, Garnished with Braised Pork Belly and Baby Arugula
Another bite from the Oregon Bounty Chef Table, thanks to the Oregon Potato Commission: Oregon Potato Confit Puree with Pomegranate Demi Glaze, Garnished with Braised Pork Belly and Baby Arugula at the Bite of Oregon 2013

Dessert: Oregon Blackberry & Raspberry Commission’s Oregon Marion Berries on Nitro with Fruit Compote & Cookie!
Dessert: Oregon Blackberry & Raspberry Commission's Oregon Marion Berries on Nitro with Fruit Compote & Cookie!. Bite of Oregon 2013

Gabriel Rucker did a cooking demo on the day I went. He introduced that although his main restaurant is known for its richness and usage of meat, he always has one of the six dishes always be vegetarian. But, it is important to him that the veg dish always be delicious and equal to his meat dishes as well. Thus, for the demo he was cooking a vegetarian entree dish of bbq glazed celery root with beaujolais from his new cookbook, Le Pigeon: Cooking at the Dirty Bird which is releasing on September 17.

As he prepared it for us, he talked about how his philosophy of food focuses on playing with the flavors of of salt, fat, and acid, and how he thought Katz vinegar was a game changing ingredient. At home, he’s surprisingly simple- just one cooked item, and a salad are his go to meal combo, and he adores radishes. Besides the steaky celery root slices, he also did demo preparing a grilled curry lamb chop with watermelon and radish salad, based on a watermelon showing up the restaurant so he decided to “wing it”. Oh, Gabe, you and your bird thing (his restaurants are Le Pigeon and Little Bird Bistro). You can get a glimpse of the lamb in the middle photo below… which later would end up on the floor when it decided it didn’t want to stand up to sear on the grill!
Gabriel Rucker cooking a vegetarian entree dish of bbq glazed celery root with beaujolais from his new cookbook, Le Pigeon: Cooking at the Dirty Bird. Bite of Oregon 2013 He also did a grilled curry lamb chop with watermelon and radish salad, based on a watermelon showing up the restaurant so he decided to wing it. Oh, Gabe, you and your bird thing (his restaurants are Le Pigeon and Little Bird). Bite of Oregon 2013 Gabe Rucker layering flavors at Bite of Oregon 2013

 

Seeing Gabe reminded me I have it on my wishlist to return to both Le Pigeon and Little Bird Bistro- I haven’t been back to either for probably a couple years. Anyone else interested in joining me?

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Another Chefwich (#4) from Lardo

August 13, 2013 by 7 Comments

After my last post looking back and forwards towards the Feast event of the Sandwich Invitational, I just had to go get a sandwich. So I walked to Lardo and back- which is about a 2 mile walk round trip from home. My goal was to get the next chefwich stamp on my pass card. I had my eye on the next collaboration sandwich between Rick and a guest chef: The Anthony Cafiero (of Ración). This would be #4 in Chefwich Series (see the other 3 chefwiches of the past 3 months at this previous post).

The Anthony Cafiero collaboration sandwich- #4/September sammie in Chefwich Series at Lardo PDX, Serrano Ham bocadillo - pepper & onion saor, manchego cheese, smoked paprika aioli. A portion of the proceeds from this Chefwich benefit Portland Food Bank. The Anthony Cafiero collaboration sandwich- #4/September sammie in Chefwich Series at Lardo PDX, Serrano Ham bocadillo - pepper & onion saor, manchego cheese, smoked paprika aioli. A portion of the proceeds from this Chefwich benefit Portland Food Bank.

This sandwich is a Serrano Ham bocadillo, with pepper & onion saor, manchego cheese, smoked paprika aioli. A portion of the proceeds from this Chefwich benefit Portland Food Bank.

The Anthony Cafiero collaboration sandwich- #4/September sammie in Chefwich Series at Lardo PDX, Serrano Ham bocadillo - pepper & onion saor, manchego cheese, smoked paprika aioli. A portion of the proceeds from this Chefwich benefit Portland Food Bank. The Anthony Cafiero collaboration sandwich- #4/September sammie in Chefwich Series at Lardo PDX, Serrano Ham bocadillo - pepper & onion saor, manchego cheese, smoked paprika aioli. A portion of the proceeds from this Chefwich benefit Portland Food Bank.

At Lardo now, but probably not much longer- it debuted I think mid-July and I just got to it now, so I think a new chefwich (#5??! Who/what will it be!!) is coming up soon!

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Counting Down to Feast Portland: Sandwich Invitational

August 12, 2013 by 13 Comments

This post is part of my series “Counting Down to Feast Portland” where I talk about events I plan to attend as part of this 4 day food and drink festival September 19-22, 2013. The goal of Feast Portland is to raise money for two Portland charity partners focused on fighting hunger: Share Our Strength and Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon. Disclaimer: I was granted a Bloggers Pass for Feast Portland 2013, and asked to help promote Feast but they did not require that I write this post and I am not otherwise being compensated.

Update – After attending the event, you can see my recap here of Day 1 of Feast

Previously: I highlighted the Oregon Bounty Grand Tasting food festival scheduled for Sept 20 and 21.

One of the events I am very much looking forward to is the Widmer Brothers Brewing Sandwich Invitational presented by Lincoln Motor Company. Tickets are $95 and the event takes place as part of Feast Portland on Thursday, Sept 19th 6:00pm – 9:00pm at Director Park.

This event is not covered by my Bloggers Pass, so I bought my ticket to this event with my own funds. I recall this was the first event that I read last year that I had regret that I had not attended, particularly as I had walked by it during that time on the way to something else and been so cruelly teased from the outside. I had rationalized myself out of buying a ticket last year, telling myself it wasn’t worth paying that price for just sandwiches. I kept second guessing myself the entire time.

And then, after the event, I gazed at the photos from last year’s event here from the sandwich porn slideshow from Bon Appetit, a Portland Monthly Magazine Slideshow, an article and Slideshow from Serious Eats, and the Diary coverage from Michael Russel at the Oregonian.

Widmer Brothers Brewing Sandwich Invitational 2012 Imperial served up some beef belly banh mi, featuring beef knuckle marmalade. Sandwich sample from Feast Portland 2012 event Sandwich Invitational. Copyright All rights reserved by Feast Portland Widmer Brothers Brewing Sandwich Invitational 2012 This Cuban fritas from Irving Street Kitchen contained chicken liver, Kobe beef, pork tenderloin, and veal. Sandwich sample from Feast Portland 2012 event Sandwich Invitational. Copyright All rights reserved by Feast Portland Widmer Brothers Brewing Sandwich Invitational 2012 Staple & Fancy (Seattle) Ethan Stowell showed off his pork belly porchetta sandwich with Bosc pear and onion mostarda from Feast Portland 2012 event Sandwich Invitational. Copyright All rights reserved by Feast Portland
Photo Credit: Feast Portland CopyrightAll rights reserved by Feast Portland

I gazed hungrily at the photos of the various sandwich samples (ahem… at the time then, and also now as I compose this post!). 15 sandwiches, paired with beer. Sandwiches like shrimp and watercress sandwiches from Ned Ludd? Dungeness crab rolls with tarragon, lemon, fennel and bacon from Jenn Louis of Lincoln? “Egg McDuffin” sandwiches made of serrano ham, bacon, and sausage from Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes and the show Ace of Cakes?

Texas-smoked Carlton Farms pork butt and pickled Dungeness crab with Oregon pear slaw and pig’s ear gravy from Ned and Jodi Elliott from Austin’s Foreign & Domestic? Bunk Sandwich’s Tommy and Nick served up a matahambre (hunger killer), with chuck steak and a slow-cooked egg marinated in chimichurri, along with spinach and carrot escabeche?!

Then there was a collaboration sandwich, a smoked prime rib with jalapeno cheesesteak from Aaron Franklin of Austin’s Franklin Barbecue (one of the top Texas BBQ spots, and possibly of all the USA?) and Rodney Muirhead of Portland’s Podnah’s Pit? And representing Beast,  an offering of maple-glazed pork belly and pickled watermelon slaw on a housemade semolina roll from Naomi Pomeroy (who ultimately won the sandwich invitational)? I would go on but it’s making me really hungry and sad that I missed out.

Widmer Brothers Brewing Sandwich Invitational 2012 Naomi Pomeroy of Beast's maple-glazed pork belly with pickled watermelon slaw on a housemade semolina roll sandwich sample from Feast Portland 2012 event Sandwich Invitational. Copyright All rights reserved by Feast Portland Widmer Brothers Brewing Sandwich Invitational 2012 Bunk served up this matahambre (hunger killer), a play on a traditional sandwich from Argentina with chuck steak and a slow-cooked egg marinated in chimichurri, along with spinach and carrot escabeche. Sandwich sample from Feast Portland 2012 event Sandwich Invitational. Copyright All rights reserved by Feast Portland
Photo Credit: Feast Portland CopyrightAll rights reserved by Feast Portland

Um, so YUM. These are not your normal sandwiches, the combinations are creative, ingredients high end and fresh, and the flavors bold, these are sammies at a level you would never find on a regular menu, even at the home base restaurants of these illustrious chefs. Based on the experienced last year, it turns out that you barely had to wait in line for your taste, with the longest apparently being for the cheesesteak sandwich at 20 minutes. Are you kidding, I’ve waited for an hour or two to eat deliciousness before, and add to that this is being crafted from the very hands of those gifted palates (squeeeee!!!)… so 20 minutes (probably while eating another sandwich) is nothing! And OMG Jeffrey Steingarten was there! I should have bought a ticket ;(

Naomi Pomeroy of Beast and her sandwich samples from Feast Portland 2012 event Sandwich Invitational. Copyright All rights reserved by Feast Portland Widmer Brothers Brewing Sandwich Invitational 2012 Shrimp and watercress sandwiches from Ned Ludd, sandwich samples from Feast Portland 2012 event Sandwich Invitational. Copyright All rights reserved by Feast Portland Widmer Brothers Brewing Sandwich Invitational 2012 Jen from Lincoln served up Dungeness crab rolls with tarragon, lemon, fennel and bacon sandwich samples from Feast Portland 2012 event Sandwich Invitational. Copyright All rights reserved by Feast Portland
Photo Credit: Feast Portland CopyrightAll rights reserved by Feast Portland

Naomi is one of the my dream chefs as I admire her as female chef in a mostly male-dominated industry despite not having formal training, and also as a representative celebrating Northwest cuisine and ingredients nationally, and her perspective of intimate supper club like food service rather than white linens experience… but I am also intimidated of. She is so unapologetically focused and driven, so whip smart and quick to learn and also take risks and pull from an amazing database of flavor possibilities in her mind. So kick ass.

And add to that the sandwich kings of Portland, Rick from Lardo and Tommy and Nick from Bunk, will be there? And the dream team for any meat,  Greg and Gabrielle from Ox? And I loved Stephanie on Top Chef (maybe I was already cheering her because she’s from my hometown Chicago, yes she’s a female chef too, and she is such an approachable genius that seems like you can have beers and laugh with). I could gush more, but suffice it to say it was clear to me I must be there at this Sandwich Invitational! I can’t write anymore, I need to go out and get a sandwich.

Widmer Brothers Brewing Sandwich Invitational 2012 Kenny and Zuke brought the classic Reubon of course, sandwich samples from Feast Portland 2012 event Sandwich Invitational. Copyright All rights reserved by Feast Portland Widmer Brothers Brewing Sandwich Invitational 2012 Rodney assembling the smoked prime rib with jalapeno cheesesteak collaboration from Aaron Franklin of Austin's Franklin Barbecue and Rodney Muirhead of Portland's Podnah's Pit. Sandwich samples from Feast Portland 2012 event Sandwich Invitational. Copyright All rights reserved by Feast Portland
Photo Credit: Feast Portland CopyrightAll rights reserved by Feast Portland

Description from the Feast website: What happens when 15 of America’s top chefs convene to harness their culinary ambition between two slices of bread? Enter the Sandwich Invitational, Feast Portland’s killer kick-off party, where wildly imaginative, chef’d-up interpretations redefine everything you thought the lowly sando could be. Enjoy sandwich bliss under the stars at Downtown Portland’s urbane Director Park, an experience paired with craft brews from legendary local Widmer Brothers Brewing plus Northwest wines and cocktails.

The Lineup

And, here’s a video showing last year’s event.

Disclaimer: I was granted a Bloggers Pass for Feast Portland 2013, and asked to help promote Feast but they did not require that I write this post and I am not otherwise being compensated. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own, and I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences regardless of whether they were complimentary or not.

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