Chefs in contest were cool under fire

Denver audience cheers Turkey-Day magic of four chefs

Marty Meitus, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 15, 2006 at midnight

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It has all the elements of a real Thanksgiving dinner - turkeys, stuffing, cranberries and time-pressed cooks. Except these cooks have a lot more on the line than making the relatives happy.

For the Food Network's Ultimate Thanksgiving Feast Challenge in Denver, four professional chefs are given five hours - and not a minute more - to whip up a 12-pound turkey and five sides. Six months after March's taping of the $10,000 winner-take-all competition, the show airs tonight on the Food Network, just in time for the holiday.

This isn't the first Challenge to be shot here, but it rates particular interest for the hometown crowd: One of the chefs is local gal Jennifer Jasinski of Rioja and Bistro Vendome restaurants. Jasinski will match her considerable talents against three fellow chefs: Joey Campanaro of the yet-to-open Little Owl in New York City; Kevin Crawley of Coriander Bistro in Sharon, Mass.; and Alexandra Guarnaschelli of Butter restaurant, also in New York.

When I arrive at the studio at High Noon Productions in southeast Denver, the chefs are at their stations, ready to start their ovens. If you think it's tough to cook dinner for family and friends, try cooking before a live audience, judges, a camera crew and media folks like me who are allowed - like the judges - to step up to the chefs and ask inane questions.

One judge says to Jasinski, "Tell us, Jen, what are you doing now?" as she slices potatoes. Jasinski is cool under pressure, moving methodically from stove to work area and back again, and answers questions. She's preparing Turkey Two Ways, where she grinds part of the turkey meat into dried apricot sausage and wraps it in caul fat. These are chefs, after all.

If I have to guess - and at this point, I do - I think Crawley's menu is too ambitious for the time frame. Campanaro, who calls himself the underdog, is hungry for the win. He needs the prize to open his restaurant.

Guarnaschelli seems to be on her game - until she finds out that she's the only one cooking the bird whole, instead of deboning it for a more complicated presentation. It upsets her rhythm all the way through.

The audience members, seated in the bleachers, are "warmed-up" early on by an emcee, who says, "Even if I blow my lines, I need great big cheers and applause." He gets, of course, great big cheers and applause, which the chefs just have to tune out. When the emcee says that Jasinski "wants to put Denver on the map," the audience breaks into spontaneous applause. There's a "Go Jen" rallying cry from the crowd.

During the long stretches of down time, I speak briefly to one of the judges, Mark Miller, owner of Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe. He believes one of the women will win. In looking at their recipes, he says, it appears that the "flavors are rounder and richer."

Watching from afar, I'm not so sure. Guarnaschelli, at least, is struggling - she doesn't manage to get her turkey into the oven until almost three hours into the competition.

As the five hours draws to a close, Jasinski throws her apron down and raises her arms in triumph - she's the first one finished. The audience is then led in an enthusiastic 5-4-3-2-1 countdown.

"I'm so happy," Jasinski says later. "I was a little worried about finishing on time about an hour and a half ago."

Guarnaschelli, on the other hand, is still removing the stuffing from her bird into a bowl as the buzzer sounds. The officials must rule on whether she gets points off because most of the stuffing is still in the turkey - or whether it counts as one of her side dishes, anyway.

The contestants are exhausted.

"I thought this would be fun and I would push myself, but it took a lot out of me," Crawley says. "It was like running the Boston Marathon."

While the judges huddle and each contestant is called before them to discuss their dishes offstage, servers appear with small plates of food from the cook-off. I manage to snag one plate as they're passed hand-to-hand among the audience in the bleachers, but it's chaotic and no one seems to know whose food we're tasting.

The chefs line up. Just as the winner is about to be announced, there's a flurry among the judges, and the action stops. Everyone looks slightly confused as the judges gather offstage. When they return, it's clear from their faces that there was some controversy, along the lines of a hanging chad. One of the contestants is declared an unofficial second-place winner because the voting - based on a point system - was that close.

When I watch the advance tape of tonight's show several months later, however, the controversy isn't mentioned.

Who won? Well, here's a spoiler alert. If you don't want to know, stop here and tune in this evening.

For everyone else, the winner was Joey Campanaro, who announced, "It couldn't have come at a better time." He went on to open his Little Owl restaurant in New York.

The unofficial second-place winner, given a silver medal by the judges, was our hometown gal Jasinski, who beamed anyway. Despite her disappointment, she told Campanaro, "You're buying the drinks."

The runner-up may not have gotten the prize, but grace under pressure? Good sportsmanship? In our book, that's a true winner.

The Ultimate Thanksgiving Feast Challenge

The Food Network

• Premieres at 10 tonight; check listings for repeats

Winning ingredients

Taste secrets from the pros

• Jennifer Jasinski: Quince in her potato gratin.

• Joey Campanaro: Turkey breasts roasted with a wine-soaked cheesecloth.

• Kevin Crawley: Grand Marnier in his Sweet Potato Galette.

• Alexandra Guarnaschelli: Pepperoni in her Pepperoni and Mozzarella Stuffing.

Marty Meitus is the food editor. Meitusm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5229

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