The Write Ingredients

City Pages' Iron Fork!

We made it over to the Iron Fork last night. I guess this is the second year of the event, which is a local chef cook-off to benefit Second Harvest Heartland. And it was fun. We got there at 530 when the doors opened to avoid the crowds, and I'm glad we did. The food was really much better, and there was much more, than we expected. Obviously, we headed right towards the wine table.

Yellow Tail was the wine sponsor and was serving pinot grigio, chardonnay and some reds (which we didn't try). We did try plenty of the white. And then we started eating. We had "Marinated pork wraps served with picled carrots, onions and lettuce" from Ngon Vietnamese Bistro. Then "Fresh vegetarian spring rolls and long-grain Hom-Mali rice braised in coconut milk" from Naviya's Thai restaurant. Then we really kicked it into gear. Torta's from Manny's Torta's (Husband's new favorite sandwich shop), Balina smoked salmon served with creamy dill cucumber sauce from O'Donovans, an amazing Grilled miniature lamb chop (I don't eat lamb) marinated in a balsamic vinagrette from Jake O'Connor's Public House, Chicken Chimilttrufias from Salsa A La Salsa, BBQ Fischer Farms pork and wild mushroom pasty from Jay's Cafe and Fresh, live schucked oysters from our favorite restaurant, Sea Salt.

From Jakeeno's we had a beautiful garlicky tomato pesto bruschetta, asparagus wrapped in proscuitto and olives (eaten).
Then we found some more wine and dessert. The View Restaurant and Bar was offering "Chocolate Dreams: Bread pudding with chocolate flavoring and an ice cream center." The Chocolate part was great, but where was the ice cream? And then, the Afton House Inn offered "Mini pumpkins with pumpkin custard (creme brulee), pumpkin seed and spiced anglaise.

And then they started cooking. Five chefs took to the floor and had to create one dish, two plates with the secret ingedient from Pepin Heights orchard. Can you guess what it might be?

There were chefs from Restaurant Alma (not our favorite, its a long story), The Art Institutes Culinary Program, Barbette, Harry's Food and Cocktails, and one other place I had never heard of. They chefs were given an hour to prepare two servings of one dish. So, after about twenty minutes it got boring. But the smells were worth it. There were fresh herbs, and halibut, something being smoked and lots and lots of local, juicy apples. I couldn't see what the chefs across the way were working on, but it was still pretty cool.