{"id":1822,"date":"2015-01-22T01:21:46","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T05:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/?p=1822"},"modified":"2015-01-22T18:10:30","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T22:10:30","slug":"2015-big-sur-foragers-festival-fungus-face-off-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/?p=1822","title":{"rendered":"2015 Big Sur Foragers Festival Fungus Face Off Results"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A winning dish from Carmel Valley Ranch with chanterelle, black trumpet, hedgehog mushrooms plus short ribs on a garlic crostini with sea salt and red radishes, courtesy of Carmel Valley Ranch Facebook page<\/p><\/div>\n

If you\u2019re curious who won the Fungus Face Off at last weekend\u2019s Big Sur Foragers Festival, I have the results. If you\u2019re not familiar with the festival, it\u2019s an annual weekend of gourmet food, first-rate wine and beer, entertainment, expert-led foraging hikes and the Fungus Face Off that is described as a \u201cfriendly chef competition with celebrity judges.\u201d The event also raises funds for the Big Sur Health Center. This year\u2019s Big Sur Foragers Festival raised more than $30,000.<\/p>\n

For the Face Off, celebrity judges included Jim Dodge, Mike Hale of the Monterey Herald, Russ Parsons of the Los Angeles Times, and Wendy Brodie. Attendees had an opportunity to taste along with the judges and to cast their vote for “People\u2019s Choice.” Participating restaurants were The Restaurant at Ventana Inn Executive Chef Paul Corsentino, Chef Sean Garrett, Fernwood, Chef Johnny DeVivo, Porter\u2019s in the Forest at Poppy Hills, Chef Phillip Burrus, Esalen, Chef Tim Wood, Carmel Valley Ranch, Chef Evan Lite, The Beach House at Lover\u2019s Point; Chef Brendan Esons, Big Sur Roadhouse; Chef Tony Baker, Montrio Bistro \/ Baker’s Bacon and Chef Steve Johnson and Mike Behan, TusCA Ristorante at Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa.<\/p>\n

Here are the Face Off results:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Winner of Best Dish Using Wine and People\u2019s Choice Award Winner: Carmel Valley Ranch<\/strong>
\nChanterelle, black trumpet, hedgehog mushrooms with short ribs on a garlic crostini with sea salt and red radishes<\/p>\n

Winner of Dish Most Easily Adapted to Home Cooking: The Beach House at Lovers Point<\/strong>
\nMushroom and pork Suigow with shitake, oyster, porcini and portabella mushrooms with a truffle soy butter<\/p>\n

Winner of Most Nutritious and Healthy: Big Sur Roadhouse<\/strong>
\nDrinks with a variety of marinated wild mushrooms (Drinks include Wood Sorrel Ale; Huckleberry Fizz with Big Sur Spring Water and Pine Needle Bay Laurel and Spearmint Tea with Big Sur Honey)<\/p>\n

Winner of Best Use of Local Ingredients: The Restaurant at Ventana<\/strong>
\nCandy Cap mushroom ravioli fried with chanterelle mushrooms, black truffle puree in a chanterelle mushroom broth with pickled chanterelles<\/p>\n

Winner of Most Inventive Use of Ingredients: Porter\u2019s in the Forest<\/strong>
\nMushrooms 5 ways:\u00a0 Pine nut aioli, fried lentil, burnt meringue (Mushrooms were pickled, roasted and saut\u00e9ed and finished with chili sea salt)<\/p>\n

Winner of Best Cooking Technique: Fernwood<\/strong>
\nPork and chanterelle meatloaf with chanterelle butter gravy and a lemon microgreen salad\u00a0 (The meatloaf was made with 4 kinds of pork and Fernwood house made bacon)<\/p>\n

Winner of Best Vegetarian Dish: Esalen<\/strong>
\nWild fennel salad with Esalen garden herbs, puree of Coke Farm celery root and pickled chanterelles<\/p>\n

Winner of Best Table Display: Big Sur Bakery<\/strong>
\nMushroom puppies with pate and Choux puffs with black trumpets, wild rice and hints of Umeboshi<\/p>\n

Winner of Judges Pick for Best Overall: Montrio and Bakers Bacon<\/strong>
\nBlack trumpet mushroom tart, dock candy cap jelly, Foie Gras parfait, Bakers Bacon and pine needle syrup<\/p>\n

Winner of Dish with Most Complex Flavors: TusCA Ristorante Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa\u00a0<\/strong>
\nSea scallop with coconut carrot broth, roasted shitake mushrooms, fresh Enoki mushrooms, lime caviar as well as a Thai basil leaf<\/p>\n

Follow me on Twitter @santacruzfoodie<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re curious who won the Fungus Face Off at last weekend\u2019s Big Sur Foragers Festival, I have the results. If you\u2019re not familiar with the festival, it\u2019s an annual weekend of gourmet food, first-rate wine and beer, entertainment, expert-led … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,20,33,315],"tags":[937,938,946,493,944,941,943,947,942,940,796,467,790,681,936,907,119,945,939,780],"class_list":["post-1822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benefits","category-cooking-chefs","category-events","category-restaurant-news-2","tag-big-sur","tag-big-sur-foragers-festival","tag-big-sur-roadhouse","tag-carmel-restaurants","tag-carmel-valley-ranch","tag-chef-johnny-devivo","tag-chef-tim-wood","tag-chef-tony-baker","tag-esalen","tag-fernwood","tag-hyatt-regency-monterey-hotel-and-spa","tag-monterey-restaurants","tag-montrio-bistro","tag-mushrooms","tag-pacific-grove-restaurants","tag-porters-in-the-forest","tag-restaurant-news","tag-the-beach-house-at-lovers-point","tag-the-restaurant-at-ventana-inn","tag-tusca-ristorante"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1822"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1825,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822\/revisions\/1825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}