Margee Berry must have the secret ingredient for success. With a
dish aptly named for the occasion, Berry’s Warm Weather Watermelon
Crab Meat-Kissed South Seas Soup, won over the palates of the six
esteemed judges and earned her the top prize Saturday at the 2010
Great Garlic Cook-Off.
Margee Berry must have the secret ingredient for success.
With a dish aptly named for the occasion, Berry’s Warm Weather Watermelon Crab Meat-Kissed South Seas Soup, won over the palates of the six esteemed judges and earned her the top prize Saturday at the 2010 Great Garlic Cook-Off.
Berry’s soothing concoction at the Gilroy Garlic Festival included peeled ginger, blood orange juice, mint – and of course garlic – and was the first dish the judges tasted.
“It was pretty remarkable,” said KRON TV movie critic Jan Wahl, who was a judge for the third time. “It was a Thai soup and if you have been to Thailand it’s a magical place where things are sort of spiritual in the air. That’s what I love about food, the sociology, the geography, the passion. It all went together.”
Despite going first, the soup and its plentiful mix of ingredients outlasted seven other mouth-watering dishes.
“It could have been totally forgotten, so I was glad I won after going first,” Berry said, sporting the prestigious garlic crown. “I tasted everyone’s dish and I thought, ‘I don’t have it.’ I thought maybe I’d finish third because it was different, but I never thought I would finish first.”
Given just two hours to prepare their delectables, the eight finalists, picked from a pool of 800 recipe entries, and volunteer sous chefs efficiently buzzed about their stations. Soon enough, blenders began to spin, sauces began to boil and judges’ and patrons’ stomachs began to grumble as the garlicky aromas began to float through the air.
“You have to eat, so you might as well eat good,” Berry said. “My mom would let me in the kitchen after she was done and I always did the desserts. And then I just have been experimenting during travels and meeting new people. I always take notes and write stuff down.”
A veteran at the cook-off, Berry finished third in 2000 with a grilled shrimp with anchovy paste, capers, garlic and a seasoned couscous. She followed up her debut performance with a second place in 2004, whipping up roasted poblanos stuffed with goat cheese and crab meet and topped with a garlic tomatillo sauce.
This time around, however, Berry brought the winning formula.
“I cook with garlic all the time, so that’s easy,” she said. “It’s a fun contest. The volunteers are just the best. They are so nice and so helpful. Some of the other cook-offs I have been to are sort of nerve-racking because they are so strict. This one is like one big party.”
Judging in his 11th Great Garlic Cook-Off, personal chef Jay Minzer said he will add the soup to his repertoire of meals.
“That soup was just over the top,” he said. “I ate my whole bowl. I’m a personal chef for a family and I will make it for them. I will probably make it this week.”
Michael Labrador’s roasted garlic paella with garlic allioli received the loudest reception from audience members based solely on the breath-taking presentation.
A carefully crafted layered abundance of rice, chicken, clams, mussels, shrimp, topped with 10 langostinos, was a mouth-watering site that judge Andrea Froncillo praised.
“That paella excited people,” said Froncillo, the executive chef at of The Stinking Rose. “I put things like that on my menu.”
Labrador, who brought a large cheering section with him from San Jose to witness his first cook-off, learned how to cook the paella from his father.
“I carried that on and hopefully my son carries it on,” he said. “To let people try it who haven’t before and like it is great.”
As for his dish, “the rice was a little undercooked, but other than that I’m happy.”
Another cook-off rookie, Leslie Shearer, brought along her potentially pretentious pork tenderloin with garlic five ways and will return to North Carolina with a second-place plaque.
“I’ve never entered anything before, and I never even thought about entering something until this,” Shearer said. “Fortunately, I didn’t have any preconceived notions of what this whole thing would be like, which is probably good.”
Berry received $1,000 for taking top honors, Labrador pocketed $750 and Shearer earner $500 for her efforts.
Warm weather watermelon crab meat-kissed south seas soup
Serves six
Ingredients:
5 cups cubed small seedless watermelon, rind removed
1 tablespoon mild olive oil
1/4 cup chopped shallots
2 teaspoons minced peeled ginger
2 teaspoons minced trimmed fresh lemongrass
1 teaspoon minced Thai chili or other hot chili, such as Serrano
1 tablespoon minced Gilroy-grown garlic
1 cup fresh squeezed blood orange juice
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Crab meat topping:
2 cups cooked lump crab meat
1/4 cup finely chopped green onion
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
4 tablespoons grated radish
