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The Food Marketing Institute chose 15 final recipes out of 100 nominations for this year’s Supermarket Chef Showdown at the FMI Connect conference in Chicago.
Amy Gleason, chef at Hy-Vee, made a cinnamon-scented parfait for the breakfast category competition on the show floor.
Photo by Steve Greiner
The finalists competed in five categories: breakfast, affordable family meals, ethnic dishes, holiday party platters and dessert.
Greg Retz, director of operations at Bi-Lo, put together a fried green tomato biscuit with orange bacon marmalade and fried egg for the breakfast competition.
Photo by Steve Greiner
Kirsten Shabaz, fresh foods educator at Valley Natural Foods, works on an "eggs in a jar" recipe in the breakfast category.
“This is a nice way to eat an egg not on a sandwich. It’s innovative, fun and has great appeal,” the contest judges said about Shabaz's recipe.
Photo by Steve Greiner
Gleason received the award for best breakfast recipe.
Sue Borra, FMI SVP of communications and strategic planning, presented the award and comments from the judges.
“Your dish was visually appealing, they loved the layering and textures. They also loved the sweet and tart flavoring,” she said to Gleason.
Photo by Jenna Telesca
Alois Maierhofer, product development chef, Giant Eagle, created a twisted wonderbar baloney sandwich with pickled root vegetables and steak fries for the affordable family meals category.
Cathy Polley, executive director of FMI foundation, VP of health and wellness at FMI, shared the judges' comments:
“Everybody loves a baloney sandwich. It is colorful and fun and a great innovative twist on a classic.”
Photo by Steve Greiner
Greg Roach, executive chef of prepared foods at Wild Oats Market, created a one pan skillet bronzed chicken with quinoa and beer can Jambalaya.
“Very family friendly and a great dish to share. Very creative and tasty use of quinoa and chicken — two very popular ingredients,” the judges said in a statement that Polley read.
Photo by Steve Greiner
Jason Miller, corporate executive chef at Balducci’s, elevated an old favorite. His dish was a turkey meatloaf Provençal, with sweet potato hash and arugula salad.
Photo by Steve Greiner
Miller was the winner of the affordable family meal category. Each category winner receives a $1,000 award. Polley (left) presented the award.
“It's exciting yet homestyle. Meatloaf is a dish that says family and this dish takes meatloaf to the next level,” she said, quoting the judges.
Photo by Jenna Telesca
The judges sample one of the chef's dishes.
Photo by Steve Greiner
Dagmar Farr, FMI SVP of member services (left), said the ethnic food category had the most entries than any other. “What does that say about our changing culture here in our industry and here in our country?”
Dustin Miller (on right), executive chef at Giant Eagle Market District, won the category with his Korean braised shortribs.
“The dates were a wonderful addition; they gave a nice sweet punch to the flavor of the crispy vegetables. Ribs were delicious and cooked perfectly,” Farr said, quoting the judges.
Yolanda Chatman (middle), executive chef at Kroger, was another finalist in the ethnic food category. Her recipe was an Asian black rice.
“It was so fresh and wonderful. Loved the presentation, which I know is important in our industry as well. The flavors were beautiful, with nice energy around the flavors,” the judges said, according to Farr.
Brian Dunn (behind Miller), corporate culinary innovation chef, Roche Bros. Supermarkets, developed a sashimi togashi shrimp noodle bowl.
“Nice texture of the noodles. Loved the surprise of the orange flavor. Perfect noodles to absorb the sauce,” the judges said.
Photo by Jenna Telesca
For the holiday party platter category, Keoni Chang, corporate chef at Foodland Super Markets, prepared a holiday mezze platter of edamame hummus, eggplant, babaganoush and Lebanese cucumber yogurt.
Photo by Steve Greiner
“Each piece of the dish was magnificent. The flavors were so innovate, fresh and bright. A lovely surprise to bite into,” the judges said in a statement.
Photo by Steve Greiner
Tim Donnelly, corporate chef for Publix Super Markets, took a bar-food approach to his platter with party sliders.
Photo by Steve Greiner
“Love the slider idea. Very kid friendly. Great variety and a nice array of flavors,” the judges said in a statement.
Photo by Steve Greiner
Elizabeth Davis, chef at Hy-Vee, made a “Yu Sheng” citrus salad platter for Chinese New Year.
Photo by Steve Greiner
Rick Stein, VP of fresh foods at FMI, presented the award for best holiday party platter to Chef Davis.
“One of the areas that I’ve been most interested in and very impressed with is party platters at supermarkets and providing catering solutions for our consumers. Supermarkets are quickly becoming the consumer solution to their catering needs for all occasions, whether it’s birthday, holidays, weddings, you name it,” said Stein.
Photo by Jenna Telesca
“And this was quite the platter that Elizabeth had yesterday, with long chopsticks, sashimi, julienned vegetables and then asked the judges to sort of mix it up and have fun with it,” added Stein after giving the category award to Davis.
Photo by Steve Greiner
The host of the Supermarket Chef Showdown was Steve Dolinsky, ABC 7's "Hungry Hound."
Photo by Steve Greiner
For the dessert category competition, finalist Dayton Caroll, chef at Hy-Vee, developed spicy peanut butter truffles
“I sampled them, they were delicious,” said Megan Tinklepaugh, manager of health and wellness, FMI Foundation.
“Sophisticated use for the popular flavors of peanut butter and chocolate. The crunch and the kick of heat were a nice surprise,” Tinklepaugh read in a statement from the judges.
Photo by Steve Greiner
Yet another finalist from Hy-Vee, Brian Williams, made a red curry coconut bread pudding for the dessert competition.
Photo by Steve Greiner
Glenn Terrell, corporate chef at Brookshire, prepared a Texas Buttermilk panna cotta.
“Very refreshing, not too sweet. A perfect finish to a meal,” the judges wrote.
Photo by Steve Greiner
Tinklepaugh (left) presented the category award to Williams.
“Your dish was very on trend. They loved the crossover from old fashion bread pudding to modern Thai flavor,” Tinklepaugh said in a prepared statement from the judges.
Photo by Jenna Telesca
“What a proud statement for this industry that we have a growing segment of our industry associates in the culinary world. These guys are all about food and that’s what we’re about," Farr said at the start of the award ceremony.
Photo by Jenna Telesca
The grand champion was chosen from the five category winners.
Photo by Jenna Telesca
FMI CEO and president Leslie Sarasin announced the grand prize winner for the 2015 Supermarket Chef Showdown.
“This is so exciting and congratulations to all of you. And such a deserving group of chefs and it’s just been a fabulous event,” said Sarasin.
Photo by Jenna Telesca
Elizabeth Davis of Hy-Vee won the grand prize.
Photo by Jenna Telesca
“One of main objectives at Hy-Vee is culinary expertise and I think it’s amazing that three of us from Hy-Vee are up here. So I think being able to have one of us be the grand champion would be an awesome way to tell our customers that we really have expertise,” said Davis standing with the other category finalists before the grand winner was announced.
Davis has a bachelor's degree in culinary arts from the Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I.
Photo by Jenna Telesca
“So fresh and delicious. A fun interaction for parties. Very inviting and wonderful taste,” the judges said about Davis' platter.
As the grand prize winner, Davis will be flying to Calabria, Italy, to attend a program at the Italian Culinary Institute for one week.
Photo by Steve Greiner
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