Chinooks Restaurant of Seward took first place at the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s second annual Great Alaska Seafood Cook-off. The win was an improvement from last year when the restaurant’s team placed second in the same competition. The live competition featured finalists from around the state of Alaska culled from around 20 entrants at the Bill Sheffield Railroad Depot on May 8.
Chinook’s Chef Kevin Lane and Lori LeMaster, who owns Chinooks with her husband Dan Butts, were the winning team from a field of competitors that included Anchorage chefs Drew Johnson of Kincaid Grill, Brett Knipmeyer of Kinley’s Restaurant and Bar, and Robert Lewis of Maxine’s Fireweed Bistro. Stuart Campbell from Hoonah’s Icy Strait Point in Hoonah and Mandy Dixon of Homer’s La Baleine Cafe rounded out the field.
The dish that took first place was a unique black cod recipe that Lane created. It featured a fresh piece of black cod straight off the commercial fishing vessel Kruzof owned by Jim and Rhonda Hubbard, owners of J&R Fisheries LLC. The cod was wrapped in a sourdough crust and came with a Yukon Gold potato puree and a sauté of sea beans, shitake mushrooms and onions. There was also smoked salmon and veal jus topped with a tempura sea bean, and a sweet and savory chutney made from rhubarb and spruce-tip syrup. They couldn’t get long green sea beans locally at this time of year, said LeMaster. But at a certain time of year one can actually collect them off the beach at Lowell Point.
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