The first time, he entered on a dare and won. The second time,
he’s feeling the pressure.
Adam Sanchez, Gilroy resident and finalist in the 27th annual
Garlic Festival Cook-Off this Saturday, said he hasn’t gotten his
entry,
”
Gnock Out
”
Garlic Gnocchi, quite as perfected as his 2001 winning entry,
Garlic Marnier Duck Potstickers.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – The first time, he entered on a dare and won. The second time, he’s feeling the pressure.
Adam Sanchez, Gilroy resident and finalist in the 27th annual Garlic Festival Cook-Off this Saturday, said he hasn’t gotten his entry, “Gnock Out” Garlic Gnocchi, quite as perfected as his 2001 winning entry, Garlic Marnier Duck Potstickers.
He prepared the final recipe on Saturday, for about the 10th time, and it was “wonderful.” He had 5 minutes to spare under the two-hour time limit. On Monday, he tried again, and the result was, well, sub-par. But not to worry, Sanchez said. He’ll cook the dish once more before the main event and hope for the best.
“I’m a little nervous, that’s why I’m doing them again,” he said. “I’m a car salesman. If I didn’t like pressure, I wouldn’t be in this business.”
Sanchez, 43, owner of Al Sanchez Volkswagen-Mazda-Jeep-Eagle in Gilroy, remembers how laid-back things were when he entered the Cook-Off for the first time in 2001.
“I did it on a bet,” he said.
Sanchez and his business manager, Ann Zyburra, started a cooking competition between the two of them shortly before the 2001 Cook-Off. They would both come into the office and brag about the wonderful dishes they had cooked the night before, Sanchez said. Their competitive edges got the better of them and they began inviting groups of friends over for taste tests, on the condition that they were required to vote.
At the first informal cook-off, the friends refused to vote because Sanchez prepared the main course and Zyburra prepared the appetizers. From that night on, they held appetizer-only evenings.
“(Zyburra) said she’d concede that I was the better chef if I entered the Cook-Off and won,” Sanchez said.
He did win, earning the “best chef of the office” title, the $1,000 grand prize, a garlic crown and the publication of his recipe in the official Garlic Festival cook book. And Zyburra still acknowledges that Sanchez is the better chef, she said Wednesday.
Sanchez said he decided to create a garlic gnocchi recipe because it was something different, even though he’d never actually cooked gnocchi before. He pan-fries the gnocchi so it is crispy on the outside, and light and fluffy on the inside. He puts 27 toasted garlic cloves in the gnocchi themselves – in honor of the 27th festival. The sauce has two raw cloves of garlic. Potatoes are the key to the recipe, he said. As with all the ingredients he is using – including pears and roasted peppers – Sanchez visited five different stores to find the potato that tastes the best in his recipe. Kachy Produce is the place, he said.
To see a past Cook-Off winner return to the stage is a rarity and an accomplishment never before achieved by a local chef. No one has won the Cook-Off twice.
Sanchez is back after the mandatory three-year hiatus for contest winners and was one of eight finalists chosen from an initial field of 474 entries from 39 states and three countries.
“The odds are against me,” he said. “And because I have so many friends and family who will be coming … there’s so much pressure. But it’s fun pressure. I don’t like losing.”
One thing he learned the first time around is that presentation matters. Everything must be prepared on the stage – from scratch – so having enough time left over to arrange the dish is key, Sanchez said. In 2001, one of the celebrity chefs and contest judges told him the duck potstickers had the “most intelligent” presentation he’d ever seen.
Since his win, Sanchez and Zyburra have put their talents to good use by donating an evening of appetizers for 10 people to an annual charity auction fundraiser for St. Mary School. In 2001, Sanchez crossed his fingers in the hope that his food would earn a bid of at least $500. It topped out at $1,400.
“We just killed them with food,” he said. They prepared 30 different appetizers.
The tradition has continued every year since then, but this year’s auction was a shocker: The winning bid was $11,000 for two separate parties.
Sanchez’s success doesn’t put him above superstition when it comes to winning Saturday morning’s contest. When he won in 2001, he was wearing a black, short-sleeved, button-down shirt he’d purchased specifically for the Cook-Off. The dragons outlined in red stitching on the shirt had an Asian look to them and he was making an Asian dish.
This year, he found a similar-style shirt and sent it to Dave Peoples at The Nimble Thimble to create some Italian modifications. On the upper back are two crossed Italian flags. Stitched along a sleeve is the phrase “Aglio, baby, aglio,” Italian for “Garlic, baby, garlic.” Stitched along the lower back is the phrase, “Tutto e meglio con aglio,” or, “Everything tastes better with garlic.”
The Great Garlic Cook-Off takes place at 10am on July 30 at the Cook-Off stage.
