Friendly Competition

More noticeable than the bustling activity, the delicious smell of bacon-wrapped shrimp grilling or the clanging of pots and pans was the warm camaraderie inside Galveston’s San Luis Resort’s industrial kitchen. On Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, some 40 chefs from Landry’s restaurant concepts around the country gathered for the Landry’s Iron Chef competition, an annual event that brings together the company’s chefs, managers and executives, as well as a few lucky outsiders. The competition is about creating and tasting food, yes, but it’s also a much-anticipated team-building exercise.

Hovering around various kitchen stations, the chefs compete for pride and a chance for their own creation to appear on restaurant menus. The two-day competition spans five categories: starters, salads, desserts, sides and entrees. And there are plenty of entries in each category. During the two-day competition, a dish leaves the kitchen every eight minutes for the panel of judges, executives and higher-ups for Landry’s Inc. to sample and analyze.

Luckily for us food writers in attendance, along with the other chefs back in the kitchen, a second plating of the dish stays in the back for everyone to try.

A pattern began to emerge after a few plates started off Wednesday’s competition around 9:30 am: A group of chefs would gradually stop their own prep work and meander towards a kitchen station where the chef on deck would begin plating a competition dish. One dish would head out to the judges, and one would be placed at a special table. Chefs would then gather once again (around the dish itself this time), iPhones would begin snapping photos, spoons and forks would be poised and, after that, all bets were off. Think: pack of wolves around a downed elk.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t quite that bad, but it was a tasting free-for-all with spoons clanging against plates, people shuffling in and around the tasting table and the chefs heading back to their respective stations to finish their own dishes. The timid or faint of heart were left staring at an empty plate with an unused fork in hand and a new resolve to throw some elbows if needed eight minutes from now.

Some of the Wednesday morning session highlights: In “starters” were a honey butter biscuit with chicken fried in an ultra light, ultra crispy batter, a tuna carpaccio with heirloom tomatoes (which won in its division), a pork belly and egg. “Salads” included tuna poke wontons and mixed greens (honorable mention), ginger-marinated raw tuna tower, a smoked duck breast and crusted goat cheese salad. “Sides” included rice grits with shrimp and shrimp toast (honorable mention) and a decadent skillet-served macaroni and cheese (division winner). And in “desserts” there was a chocolate dome cake with hazelnuts.

Winning the coveted “Best Overall Dish” category was Houston’s hometown hero of steak and extravagance, Carlos Rodriguez of Vic & Anthony’s, with a crudo of amberjack (photo at top) that was reportedly just as delicious as it was beautiful. (I didn’t snag a bite of that one.)

Perhaps more interesting even than the dishes themselves was the sense of community among the chefs and the friendly ribbing and laughs permeating the busy kitchen. While it was a serious endeavor, the chefs seem to enjoy the company even more than the competition.