The Mighty Rib goes to Austin…special thanks to Casey, one of our contributing writers, for covering the event!

First off, let me just say, I’ve never been to a food and wine match prior to Kevin reaching out and asking if I wanted to represent The Mighty Rib at Austin’s first annual “Edible Texas Wine-Food Match”. I’m so thankful he did because it was a super cool evening.

A little background for everyone: a wine-food match is a head to head competition amongst chefs, in this case 5 of the most well renowned hill country chefs, pitting their 3 courses plus wine pairings {the chefs cooked the food AND selected the wine and were to be judged on the pairing of the wine with the food} against their peers’ selections. Each round consisted of an appetizer plus paired wine, as chosen by the chef, a main course plus paired wine, and a dessert plus paired wine.

There were about 180 people in attendance and it was hosted at the AT&T Executive Conference Center on the University of Texas campus. An all-star panel of judges awarded the top prize to the winning chef, $5000 plus a $500 knife, while we in the crowd voted on the People’s Choice. This was 2nd place essentially and collected a cool $2000 plus a $500 knife. Not being a previous attendee of an event such as this, or a wine connoisseur for that matter, placed undue stress on me at first regarding judging these chefs offerings. The list of items to judge them by was as follows:

1. Wine/food balance (intensity of flavors/aromas)
2. Wine/food complimentary (synergy or interplay of food element(s) and wine)
3. Wine/food integration (utilization of similar aroma/flavor/tactile characteristics in food and wine)
4. Wine/food creativity (new combination or fusion)
5. Wine/food overall (meets stated intent as described in a pairing mission statement)

Lots of plating going on!

You see, my palette is not that sophisticated, so when I was articulating what I thought of each round with the 7 strangers at the table I was sitting at, it was clear they knew what they were talking about and I did not. At least, they had a far wider vocabulary of food and wine terms to pull from to describe each dish and drink pairing compared to my repetitive: “I liked it”, “not so good”, “it was OK”, “wow, I really liked this”, “great pairing”, “I didn’t care for this pairing that much… all I know is whatever the last dessert plus wine did to my mouth this appetizer plus wine pairing did NOT do”.

The chefs competing in this wine-food match were:
1. Chef Kelly Casey, Hudson’s on the Bend Messina Hof Winery • Inwood Estates • Stone House Vineyard
2. Chef Patrick James Edwards, Bin 555 Restaurant and Wine Bar • Becker Vinyards
3. Chef David Garrido, Garrido’s Restaurant Fall Creek Vineyards • Sister Creek Vineyards
4. Chef Josh Raymer, Navajo Grill Perissos Vineyards and Winery • Messina Hof Winery
5. Chef Peter Smith, JW Marriott Hill Country Resort and Spa • Flat Creek Estate

The all-star judges judging these chefs were:
1. Jacques Pepin, food celebrity and world-renowned chef
2. Francois Dionot, founder and director, L’Academie de Cuisine
3. Paula Lambert, author and founder of Mozzarella Company
4. Michael Bauer, executive food and wine editor, San Francisco Chronicle
5. John Besh, chef and founder Besh Restaurant Group, TV personality and author

Chef Peter Smith's dessert

As mentioned previously, I was at a table with 7 strangers. One couple’s husband was the main “guy” at Becker Vineyards, which is a very well-known vineyard in Johnson City. He definitely knew his wines and actually gave a speech during the event thanking chef Patrick Edwards for pairing all of his food with Becker’s stuff. There was also the head of PR for Becker vineyards and a woman who ran an after-school culinary arts program for kids. She would head to the schools and the kids would stay after class to do some cooking. She had attended a really well-known culinary arts school {I can’t recall the name of it and didn’t write it down of course!} and told me what each weird sounding or foreign/unknown ingredient was in the dishes served. Needless to say, I was the classless schlub at our table.

All 15 courses were something I’d have enjoyed eating if at these chefs’ restaurants. There was nothing that I tried where I thought “terrible”… it was tough to pick a favorite actually since everything was so good. The one item that I didn’t like was a dessert titled thus: Grapefruit “Dreamsicle” with Vanilla Semifreddo, Opal Basil & Round Rock Honey Chantilly. It was a great dessert except for the basil which totally threw me for a loop. My table was split on this one so it wasn’t just me who thought it odd to include basil in a dessert dish.

The chef who I voted for was Peter Smith from the JW Marriott Hill Country Resort in San Antonio. His courses/pairings and my scoring or notes for each round are below:

• Appetizer / 1st course: Aerated Pure Luck Chevre with Blackberry and Persimmon Pasilla Paper, House-Baked and Dried Sourdough Cracklings, Emulsion of Fennel Pollen and Round Rock Honey paired with Flat Creek Estate Muscato 2010

• Creative, complimentary, good food integration and great pairing of wine/food

• Entrée / 2nd course: Sous Vide Beeman Family Ranch Akaushi Beef Loin {Lone Star Foodservice} with Parsnip and Cauliflower Mousse, Brazos Horseradish and Cheddar Gnocchi, Texas Pride Mushroom Soil, Candied Texas Olive Oil Powder

• Best entrée of the night, crazy presentation – lots going on, definitely high on integration and complimentary

• Dessert / 3rd course: Honey Roasted Heirloom Tomatoes with Blackberry and Almond Streusel, Brown Butter Financier, Mascarpone Parfait and Texas Peach Capriccio

• Good, not favorite dessert of the night {favorite dessert was from chef David Garrido of Garrido’s in Austin: Pastel de Calabazza with Lemon Crema and Caramelized Pecans}

Chef David Garrido's winning plate

The winner, according to the judges, was the chef mentioned above with what I thought was the best dessert of the night, David Garrido. He had a really great entrée serving as well, Coffee Chipotle Marinated Beef Tenderloin with Red Beet and Black Truffle Sauce – hmmmm!!!!!!!!!!

All in all, it was a fantastic night with good conversation and even better food and wine. This was the first time a contest such as this had been put on in Texas {a food + wine pairing competition} and The Mighty Rib was proud to have been attendance. All proceeds from this event went towards the just launched nonprofit Texas Center for Wine and Culinary Arts, which is dedicated to promoting Texas wine, foods, and agriculture through education outreach. If this Center provides a higher statistical chance that other folks local to Texas could churn out meals like the ones served up at this challenge, then foodie’s, food blogs, and folks in this circle are guaranteed to eat well for years to come.