I'm sure you could tell from this post, that I was fascinated with the "Taste of Korea Harvest and Wine Festival". So yesterday, I parked in Old Town, and took the trolley down to the Gaslamp.
And got off at the Convention Center stop, which is but a few steps from the San Diego Wine & Culinary Center.
The event was combination of a wine tasting, cooking contest, and a celebration of Chuseok, the Korean Harvest Festival.
The schedule looked pretty jam packed, with the tasting of three wines, entertainment, food, and three culinary challenge matches.
Arriving early, I had a chance to chat briefly with Cathlyn Choi. Energetic, with a great sense of humor, Cathlyn managed doing several things at once, all while dressed in a formal Hanbok on one of the hottest days of the year!
There were three different wines featured during the event; first a Makkoli, a rice wine.
Which was quite refreshing. This wine is made by fermented rice and water, and looks very much like Nigori Sake. It is not quite as sweet, and the alcohol content in Makkoli is a bit lower than
Nigori. In fact, I like this a bit more than Nigori Sake. It is easy to drink.
The second wine was a Bek Se Ju, made from glutinous rice flavored with ginseng and other herbs, this was quite medicinal, but ok overall. The last wine was a Bok Bun Ja, a raspberry wine that was a bit too sweet for my tastes. It was fun trying these out, and I think I'll be getting some Makkoli for the Missus one of these days.
Of course there was food……
My favorite item was the Dduk Boki which Cathlyn made, there was also food provided by some pretty familiar names……
There was also entertainment, which included a Gayaguem performance.
And a very enjoyable performance by Fairfax High School's Korean Drum Group.
Of course, I was most interested in the cooking contest. Even though the six Chefs competing aren't quite household names, by the end of the evening it was pretty obvious that they all had some cooking chops.
I snagged a seat at the table right behind the judges, the most well known to food folks might be Myung Sook Lee, who is most well known for Her appearance on the original Japanese version of Iron Chef. You can see a video of her match against Chen Kenichi in the "Liver Battle" here. Chef Lee, is also the Executive Chef of Soban Restaurant in Rancho Bernardo. She is also a force of nature, and was all over the place during the matches, often stepping behind the counter to sample and sniff sauces, give advice, and watch what the chefs were doing up close.
She also looked like one tough customer who could snap me in two over her knee should she so desire. Folks in San Diego would probably also recognize C S Keys.
My personal favorite judge was FOY (Friend of Yoso) Candice Woo.
The rules of challenge itself was fun. Each of the six chefs picked a slip from a bag. A different traditional Korean Dish or food item was on each slip. The chefs were divided into twos with thirty minutes to make the dish. A basket of ingredients was provided for each chef. What was very entertaining was that several of the chefs had never seen nor eaten the dish assigned to them!
The first two up were Jean-Michel Gottlieb who owns Bella Catering and Phillip Soriano Sous Chef at the Marine Room.
So how's this for a challenge, Chef Jean-Michel was to make Japchae, but he had never even heard of the dish! Given the ingredients, Chef Jean-Michel made what looked like deconstructed Japchae, with all the ingredients prepared seperately. The two other Judges, Sookhee Jung, Food Columnist for The Korean Times and Ena Yu, Columnist for The Korea Daily, found his dish a fascinating take on Japchae.
Chef Phillip was to make BiBimBap, and by the look of his dish, it was quite apparent that he's had his share of BiBimBap as his version looked the most like the traditional dish.
The next pair up were Lance Roll, aka The Flavor Chef, who is quite a character. He had selected KimChi…… and had to pull that off in 30 minutes! Alongside Chef Roll was Pam Schwartz, CIA Graduate and Program Coodinator for Sur La Table.
Chef Pam used a handy dandy Vacu Vin Instant Marinator to get her selection of Bulgogi ready in fifteen minutes. She got positive nods from the Judges for her addition of Sesame leaves for wrapping the bulgogi.
Chef Lance, who had the task of making KimChi, used a quick saute with garlic and oter seasonings to get his Kimchi started. He also added bell peppers, utilized the freezer to bring everything to temp, and a creative presentation to complete his dish.
His dish was most surprising, as I got a taste of it. It was quite good, and tasted like good tsukemono! Pretty amazing for something made in 30 minutes! He really got the judges attention with his effort.
Next up were Chef Maria Sparks, co-owner of Cork and Platter, and Rene Fernandez. Chef Maria had Dak Galbi, and had no idea what that was! Still she was a very good sport, and seemed to have fun with the dish.
She added a very different ingredient to her chicken stir-fry……. Curry! Which drew some ooohs from the Korean women sitting on the table behind me.
In the end, the finished product was very tasty, and I really loved her presentation.
Chef Rene had Dduk Boki on his hands……
And I enjoyed his hearty, soulful version of this dish the most of what I was able to taste.
I'm not going to tell you who won…. since this is going to be televised, I'll ask Cathlyn if I can reveal the winner.
Though the event ran pretty long, I hope Cathlyn does this again…. and lets me know about it!
So I can let you all know about!
