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Area’s top chefs compete in Dutch Oven Gathering
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD – Food is one of the highlights of the Greater Jefferson County Fair, especially the home-cooked variety.
On Sunday morning of fair week, June 29, the public got a chance to sample treats both sweet and savory from the area’s top chefs at the Dutch Oven Gathering. Three teams competed this year, and they took home prizes awarded by judges Tony Baker and his daughter Shannan Baker from Sweet ‘n Saucy.
Shannan said she and her dad agreed on the placings for nearly all dishes except one, where they had to debate before making their final call. The Overall Brunch Award went to the team of Billy Haynes and his son Adler, who made Ratatouille. Billy said he was inspired to make it by the Disney movie of the same name, and put his own twist on it by adding sausage.
Adler was responsible for making the team’s dessert, apple pie. Their apple pie included this year’s “mystery ingredient” which was zucchini. Teams can opt to enter the mystery ingredient challenge, but they have to agree to it before they know what it is. Sometimes it can be a challenge to incorporate the ingredient in one of their two dishes, but Adler pulled it off. Shannan said she and Tony liked the fact they could still taste the zucchini in the apple pie and that it complemented the pie well.
The Overall Dessert Winner was the Blueberry Dump Cake by Richard Heald and his grandson Dillan Post. Post remarked, “It’s pretty hard to make a bad dump cake.”
The team also made Mexican chicken roll-ups for their other dish. They said they’ve competed in the Dutch Oven Gathering for at least six years.
The team of Joe Garretson and his son Tristen made a strawberry cheesecake dump cake for their dessert, and for their brunch they made pollo loco with rice, chicken, queso and zucchini. Tristen said they try to make something new each year of the cook-off to challenge themselves. They did a “test drive” on these recipes earlier in the week. Tristen said the first dump cake they made didn’t work, but the second one was much better.
Tristen is a Boy Scout and Joe is the leader of the Boy Scout Troop. They often use their Dutch ovens during camping trips, and the scouts take turns being in charge of the meal. Joe said he also likes to compete in the Dutch Oven Gathering with Billy Haynes, his friend from high school. In fact, those two plan to take over responsibility of organizing the Dutch Oven Gathering next year.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
