Garlic Festival attendees experience the beauty
– and tastiness – of all garlic has to offer
By Tony Burchyns Staff Writer
Gilroy – Garlic Festival-goers enjoyed mouth-watering meals, cooking demonstrations and a chance to take home free recipes from Gourmet Alley.
It was all part of an atmosphere of sharing cultivated by the volunteer foodies who make up the heart and soul of the celebrated event.
“No ‘Soup Nazis’ here!” proclaimed John Vickroy, one of many volunteer “chefs” happy to give away secrets on perfectly sauteing the world’s most infamous – and vindicated – strongly flavored bulb. “This is an open society that loves to share good food.”
Vickroy, 49, is the proud inventor of the sausage sandwich recipe served on Gourmet Alley, the renowned line of food booths manned entirely by local volunteers. “I wanted to call it the ‘Stinkin’ Dog,'” he joked. But the idea never stuck.
Hourly cooking demonstrations by Vickroy and others were held inside the shady tent at the end of Gourmet Alley. A new sponsor, Washington Mutual Bank, provided preprinted recipe cards in a related promotion. Each card showcased one of four recipes, including two pioneered by Garlic Festival guru Val Filice, 79, the local farmer who helped launch the appetizing South County event 28 years ago. The other two came courtesy of Lou Trinchero and the cooking team of Gene Sakahara and Sam Bozzo, otherwise known as SakaBozzo.
Volunteer Greg Bozzo said the rising popularity of cable TV cooking shows is helping to make the free-of-charge sideshow – along with a separate cook-off stage – a success. Outside, throngs of garlic lovers meandered in the sun with plates of stuffed mushrooms, pepper steak sandwiches and pasta con pesto.
“This gives people a bubble,” he said. “They come in here, watch what’s going on, get out from the heat and ask questions. It’s up close and personal.”
Organizers made a few enhancements this year.
For one thing, they hung a large angled mirror over the cooking stage that allowed people sitting in the bleachers to see every ingredient added to the oversized iron pan.
“When you’re cooking, you don’t have to worry about lifting and showing,” said Vickroy, who last week did a cooking demonstration on Theresa Wright’s “Feedback @ Five” on KSBW TV. “People can actually see what you’re doing. That really helps them learn to cook for themselves.”
Gilroy resident Charles Richburg was one beneficiary of a free lesson on peppersteak sandwiches. The secret? Garlic. Lots of Garlic.
“It shows all the dimensions of how you can use it,” Richburg said of the demonstration. “That really sparks my interest in all the meals that are prepared.”
Filice, whose recipes have been Garlic Festival favorites for three decades, said the secret to a good recipe is creativity.
“It’s something that has to come from you,” said Filice, who was taking a break back stage. “Nobody else can put it in you. It’s creative; I think it’s easy.”
The trick, he suggested, is to start off with the basics and slowly blend flavors. Dipping a hunk of garlic bread into a large metal tray of left-over butter sauce, he was clearly happy with the rendering of his work.
Elena Godinez traveled all the way from Pomona with her husband and parents to attend her first Garlic Festival Saturday. The party of four loved the dramatic flame-ups and – like Filice – the garlicky scampi in butter sauce. Godinez, a cooking enthusiast, said she was happy to receive a free recipe to add to her collection. She said she’s a burgeoning garlic fan.
“When I was younger, I didn’t like it,” she laughed. “Now I love it. We cook with a lot of garlic, and I try to add it on just about anything.”
Vickroy said the recipes and meals of Gourmet Alley represent the heart and soul of the festival.
“And it’s amazing how the heart and soul of this festival has grown larger and larger,” he said, “incorporating our demonstration stage here, the cook-off stage and all the different features out there with all the other vendors.”
