Professional chefs will face off at this year’s Garlic Festival,
battling at the grills to win $5,000 and a 1,000-pound haul of
Gilroy’s stinking rose.
Gilroy – Professional chefs will face off at this year’s Garlic Festival, battling at the grills to win $5,000 and a 1,000-pound haul of Gilroy’s stinking rose.
The contest, dubbed Garlic Showdown, sprung from the 28-year-old Great Garlic Cook-Off, which pits amateur cooks against each other for the best garlic-flavored dish. In the Showdown, professionals will take the stage, in a contest modeled on the “Iron Chef” TV show of Food Network fame, at noon Sunday, July 29.
Four cooks, selected by four different Northern California radio stations, will get a surprise “secret ingredient,” then spend two hours folding that foodstuff into garlicky entrees for judges’ review. The cooks’ names will be revealed in early July.
“This just took on a life of its own,” said Barbara DeLorenzo, chair of the Garlic Festival’s Cook-Off stage. “It’s only a few weeks before the festival, and here we are with a brand-new event!”
The Showdown is one of several changes to this year’s festival: Organizers are also introducing garlic fries to the Gourmet Alley menu, bringing country band Whiskey Falls onstage Saturday, July 28, and relocating the children’s play area to the center of Christmas Hill Park near Gourmet Alley. The festival is also bringing back the Garlic Idol singing competition, which carries a prize of 1,000 gallons of unleaded gas, the cooking demonstration stage, which reveals the secrets behind Gourmet Alley favorites, and the Got Milk Gravity Tour, a skateboarders’ stunt show returning to the festival after a two-year hiatus.
The Garlic Festival is planned for July 27 to July 29, 10am to 7pm daily at Christmas Hill Park.
Tickets cost $12 for adults, $6 for seniors age 60 and older, and $6 from kids ages 6 to 12. Kids younger than 6 are admitted free. For more information, visit www.gilroygarlicfestival.com.
