This year’s much anticipated Star Chefs competition and tasting will be held on Sunday, Sept. 20, at the stunning Lexington Estate in Los Gatos. This year’s slate of participants includes three South County chefs and a Morgan Hill mixologist.
This third annual food and beverage pairing event will once again benefit Momentum for Health, the 66-year-old organization that provides mental health services for Santa Clara residents.
Last year’s event was held at the Glass House in downtown San Jose, and crowned Jackie’s Place—a wildly popular soul food spot in San Jose—People’s Choice for her Soul Roll, a spicy smoked brisket beef with pepper jack cheese served in a fried wonton wrapper, paired with Old Hillside Bourbon Whiskey sweet tea. Jackie also whipped up a fried chicken version with mac ‘n cheese and collard greens, drizzled with sweet potato glaze.
This year, another slate of talented chefs will put their culinary talents to the test as they team up with local beverage providers to create an afternoon of brisk competition for a good cause.
Among the participants hailing from the South Bay are the San Martin-based CordeValle resort’s new Executive Chef at Il Veneto, Chef Abraham Torre; Chef Sal Calisi at Morgan Hill’s Odeum; and Chef Ross Hanson of Silos, also in Morgan Hill.
Odeum and Silos are located in the Granary District on Depot Street in downtown Morgan Hill.
Chef Ross is back to defend his two-year back-to-back title of Chef’s Choice for Best Pairing, which he won last year for succulent gruyere stuffed arancini atop celery root puree, topped with Calabrian chile aioli, paired with the 2023 Common Thread Brut Rosé sparkling made by winemaker David Baird.
Silos will do double-duty this year, as they’ll also be showing off their mixology skills by creating the Welcome Cocktail for guests as they arrive onsite at Lexington House. Mixologist Erica Presto is doing the honors.
A welcome cocktail
When Brenda Hammond, chief chef and beverage wrangler behind Star Chefs, and also the mother of Chef Ross Hanson of Silos, asked Presto to create a welcome cocktail for the Star Chefs event, she was thrilled. Extremely competitive by nature, she went to work.
“I kind of want to reflect my program at Silos,” Presto said. “I call our style ‘Ramen Western,’ which is like a spaghetti Western with an Eastern take.”
Being Filipino, she enjoys Eastern riffs on Western staples. “We have this tradition called macho dancing in the Philippines, where the hyper masculine dancer wears cowboy boots and sings sultry pop American songs,” Presto said.
Hence she’s calling her cocktail, which will have a bright green rim, Macho Dancer.
In creating her drinks, Presto explained she works from the garnish first. She has developed what she calls Green Tajin, using three types of chiles that are blanched to make them more palatable. After blanching the Thai chiles, she soaks them in fish sauce and soy and adds caramelized palm sugar, which she tells us comes from southern parts of Vietnam.
“It comes in giant golden balls,” Presto said. “I get it at the Little Saigon market where we’ve been going for years.”
The three chiles are then put in a molcajete bowl—a volcanic stone mortar used to grind spices—along with Maldon grey smoked salt, kefir lime salt and citric acid, and some palm sugar to create the Green Tajin. Presto admitted this is a riff on a rim that a colleague at Oak & Rye came up with using New Mexican chiles.
“Austin was using Hatch chiles and jalapenos and serranos,” Presto said. “Ours at Silos is a more Filipino approach. We’re competitive, but we work in tandem with each other. I use a molcajete, while he uses a spice grinder. Molcajete is better for the larger quantities we need at Silos.”
She says she’s planning to use a gin-based cocktail with kafir lime to complement it.
“Think of a margarita shaking hands with a gimlet. I love riffs on riffs on riffs!”
Cheers to that.
Odeum’s Calisi brought a bit of Mediterranean magic to Morgan Hill when he opened the wood-fired oven-centric restaurant back in 2011. Prior to that, he was with Dio Deka in Los Gatos when they earned their Michelin star in 2010.
He said he is super happy to be returning to Star Chefs, and raves about last year’s event where he served a lemony cold octopus salad paired with a white vermouth cocktail.
Things are changing in the dining world, he observed. Not only is everything more expensive, but people are moving away from big entrées with a huge dinner plate filled with just one dish.
Instead, he said, people want smaller plates, with more diversity.
“People want to share, to explore, to try different things,” said Calisi. “They order multiple appetizers. They’re also drinking lots of mocktails.”
He points to the impact of GLP1 drugs on reducing the size of portions consumed when dining out. Adjustments have been made to the Odeum menu to reflect this, with dishes like stuffed artichokes, stuffed mushrooms, spanikopita, focaccia, ahi poke nachos, filet mignon flatbread, scallop crudo and a Mapakia salad with shaved Brussels sprouts, bacon and poached pear with lemon vinaigrette.
Hearty eaters can still get Chilean sea bass, Weinersnitzel, veal saltimbocca and chicken parmesan—and don’t forget the ever-popular gnocchi Bolognese and lobster pappardelle.
Morgan Hill’s demographics are changing, and Calisi is seeing many large Asian families that want more vegetarian options. He usually introduces himself and asks if he can prepare something special for them.
He has spiced up his Caesar salad with wasabi horseradish dressing and sweetie drop peppers. And of course, there’s pizza from the woodfired oven. Diversity is the key.
But at heart, he’s a lamb lover, and for the Star Chefs event, Calisi plans to serve Australian lamb chops Greek style, with lemon and Greek oregano, over cannellini beans with escarole. This will be paired with pinot noir from Kings Mountain Vineyards in Woodside made by winemaker Nathan Kandler of Fogarty Winery.
Food in the family
Il Veneto at Cordevalle welcomes back Chef Abraham Torre who was just named Executive Chef at the San Martin resort.
A fourth-generation chef from Ampuero, Spain, whose culinary repertoire was shaped by the recipes and rituals of his childhood, Torre brings the rich culinary traditions of Basque Country to CordeValle.
His culinary story began by watching his father and grandmother prepare family favorites like Bacalao al Pil-Pil and Paella Papa Lollo.
He remembers shopping the markets his ancestors had frequented, and learned the secrets of handmade chorizo as well as the perfect sofrito—slow-cooked with patience, balance and instinct.
Over two decades, Torre has worked in some of the world’s most celebrated kitchens, from The Royal in Nottingham and the London Hilton on Park Lane to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. He also counts a stint at Ventana Big Sur among his highlights, but each destination has added another layer to his culinary style that marries European technique with California’s incredible bounty, and always suffused with his Basque heritage.
For Star Chefs this year, Torre is making Spanish chorizo slowly braised in a bold Rioja, tomato, roasted pepper and garlic sauce, served with a rustic garbanzo bean stew infused with herbs and warm Spanish spices.
The dish will be finished with fresh parsley and accompanied by crisp, golden pan de ajo to soak up the rich, savory braising jus. The dish will be paired with a wine from CordeValle Winery.
Tickets to the Star Chefs event, where well over a dozen of the top local Bay Area chefs will be cooking up fun for a good cause, can be purchased here: tinyurl.com/2m36une6.
