LITTLE ROCK — What has eight arms and is covered in a special sauce? Dinner. At least that’s what the judges at the third annual Diamond Chef Arkansas competition were served by Chef Daniel Capello and Chef Jason Knapp. The evening’s mystery ingredient was octopus.
The two chefs went head to head June 8 in the Wally Allen Ballroom of the Statehouse Convention Center as they competed for the title of Diamond Chef. The mystery ingredient was only revealed minutes before the competition, and the chefs and their assistants had 60 minutes to prepare a three-course meal for the judges.
Capello, chef at Chenal Country Club, won the competition. On his team were executive sous-chef Matt Cooper and sous-chef Robert Henthorn. For the first course they served the judges octopus and foie gras sate cooked on a charcoal grill with peanut sauce and marinated onioncucumber salad. The second was a spicy baby octopus roll in avocado with Asian vegetable salad, wasabi and a pickled ginger and soy reduction. For the final dish, the chefs created truffle poached octopus on a mushroom tart with ratatouille, truffle sauce, herb salad and fried baby octopus.
Judges were Jim Montgomery, Chef Mary Beth Ringgold and Chef Don Bingham. Chef Andre Poirot served as technical judge.
The record crowd of 510 guests raised $150,000 for the Pulaski County Technical College’s culinary school. Theevening began with a cocktail hour where guests could bid on silent auction items followed by a dinner of steak medallions and mushroom sauce served over polenta.
The competition was presented by the Pulaski Technical College Foundation. Joyce Taylor is executive director.
Co-chairmen were Janell Mason and Rusty Mathis. Serving as master of ceremonies was Pamela Smith.
High Profile, Pages 44 on 06/20/2010