Local food pairings a hit at sold-out Sample the Sierra

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - If you waited to the last minute to purchase tickets for the 8th annual Sample the Sierra you were out of luck on Saturday at Bijou Community Park. The popular festival of food, wine and beer sold out all pre-sale tickets prior to the event, and sold out of tickets at the gate just after opening, much to the disappointment of many.

1,500 full tasting tickets and 50 children tickets were sold. Those lucky enough to get in moved from booth to booth, each with either a wine, beer or alcohol paired with food, or a local artisan and their wares.

Not only were the taste buds of foodies treated to pairings of local restaurants with local produce, people were also treated to the annual Sierra Chef Challenge.

Chef Anthony Schiavone of Bespoke Private Chef Services, Stephen Gill of Cherry Bomb Catering, Kristina Forsberg with Hard Rock Hotel Tahoe and Patrick Harrity of Cold Water Brewery & Grill all rose to the challenge.

Each were given the same community supported agriculture (CSA) box of ingredients to use in a dish, along with the same staples (butter, heavy cream, flour, sugar, rice vinegar, balsamic vinegar, canola oil, kosher salt, eggs, Polenta flour, honey, black pepper, olive oil, French bread and coconut milk).

A team of judges critiqued the chefs on the usage of ingredients, their creativity, plating of their dish and cooking skills. They submitted their score cards at the end of each round, eliminating one chef as they did so.

All four chefs started off the challenge with the appetizer round. Each had to create a dish using their CSA box of quail, Pop Rocks, cashews and sun dried cranberries.

Chefs from Cherry Bomb, Hard Rock Hotel and Cold Water Brewery moved onto the second round, the entree. The CSA box included pork chops, chick peas, yellow curry and Major Grey chutney.

The final round was the dessert. It was a competition between Forsberg and Harrity, both are new in their positions. Forsberg started in February and Harrity in January. They went head to head with their CSA box of Mascarpone, English peas, almonds and white chocolate.

Harrity came of the competition with Cold Water Brewer & Grill's third Sierra Chef Challenge Award.

His winning combination was Honey Seared Quail Breast with a Wilted Chard Salad and Cranberry Vinaigrette (Appetizer), Smoked Pork Chop over Curried Chickpeas with Major Grey Chutney (Entree) and Fritter over White Chocolate and Cranberry Mascarpone with Sweet Pea Caramel.

Don't look for the chef's creations on their menus any time soon, though their talents could make them an epicurean treat.

For a full list of participants in the event, visit their website at www.samplethesierra.com.