Prior to the kickoff of Friday’s inaugural Garlic Bowl – a new cooking competition among executive chefs from three different universities – at the 35th annual Gilroy Garlic Festival, the San Jose State University team has been tagged as 3-1 favorites to win.
“It gives a little sizzle to the event,” said Hall of Fame college football announcer Joe Starkey, who has also done commercials and radio spots for the Garlic Festival since 2001 during an April press conference to announce the latest college cooking showdown.
Team Sparty, led by Executive Chef Michele Rogers and her sous chef Carlos Duque, will battle cooking teams from the University of California at Berkeley (5-1 odds to win) and Fresno State University for the $5,000 top prize, which goes to that college’s scholarship fund. The other two teams will earn $1,000 scholarship for their respective schools.
Executive Chef Mary Ferrer and sous chef Ida Shen make up the Golden Bears’ cooking duo from Berkeley, while Executive Chef Erik Debaude and sous chef Bryan Kramer comprise the Bulldogs’ culinary tandem out of the Central Valley. The one-hour, two-dish cook-off, which also has an over-under line of 3.5 pounds of garlic used – begins at 2 p.m. inside the Festival’s Cook-Off Theater on the park side of Christmas Hill Park.
The top team will also bring a perpetual trophy back to their institution to keep until next year’s showdown, where new college teams will compete for a chance to take it home.
Regarded as the “Rose Bowl of food festivals,” the Garlic Festival is expected to entertain 100,000 visitors at Christmas Hill Park July 26-28 in Gilroy.
