OUR LAGUNA:Foodies battle it out for taste title

The first-ever food fight at the Festival of Arts was won by a TKO.

Only a few points separated winning Surf & Sand’s Executive Chef Lewis Butler from the Ritz Carlton’s Chef de Cuisine Matthew Sisson in the one-hour professional culinary competition Saturday.

But the event was a knock-out.

An estimated crowd of 1,500 showed up for the noon cook-off, based on the popular “Iron Chef of America” TV show, and the later competition featuring students of the Laguna Culinary Arts, co-presenter of the event with the festival.

“This is great — 10 years ago if we had this competition, nobody would have been here,” said Mark Jacobi, owner of Sundried Tomato on Forest Avenue, Laguna College of Art & Design board member and one of the three judges for the food fight.

Fight? It might as well have been conducted under the Marquess of Queensberry rules.

When Butler’s power went out temporarily, Sisson offered to share his. And Butler regretted he had not rushed to assist when Sisson almost ran out of time.

“We should have gone over and helped plate the food when they got pushed for time,” Butler said. “I wish we had.”

The competition went right down to the wire. Sisson presented his entry just as the very involved crowd counted down to the last second.

Each chef was challenged to prepare two dishes made with sweetbreads and/or veal top round, the main ingredients kept secrets until the cook-off began.

Sisson planned to prepare veal saltimbocca, but when that didn’t pan out, he and his sous chef, Joe Montgomery, had to improvise. His “saltimboca deconstruction” with pimento goat cheese tart and grilled asparagus made a creative triumph out of potential disaster, which all the judges admired.

“There are so many facets to the restaurant industry that chefs have to be ready for anything,” said Judge Marcel Vigneron, a runner-up in the second season of Bravo Channel’s “Top Chef” and master chef at Joel Robuchon at the Mansion in Las Vegas.

The second dish prepared by Sisson’s team was sautéed sweetbreads with Madeira and mushrooms, topped with leek foam and a parmesan cheese dome.

Sisson’s interest in the culinary arts was triggered during a family trip to San Francisco when his father suggested a visit to the California Culinary Academy.

He joined the Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel culinary team in February 2001 and was promoted to Chef de Cuisine of The Club Grill & Bar in November 2003 and Chef de Cuisine of Restaurant 162’ in May.

Butler, who was born in England, graduated from Sommerset College of Applied Arts and Technology, winning five diplomas in Cooking for the Catering Industry.

He worked for the Four Seasons chain for 17 years, starting in 1980 at the Hotel Ottowa. He transferred to a Four Seasons hotel in Los Angeles in 2000, where he worked for two years as executive sous chef on a culinary team which earned the hotel its coveted American Automobile Association Five Diamond rating.

Butler was welcomed as executive chef to the Surf & Sand in Laguna after a stint at the hotel’s sister property, Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Diego.

His winning preparation and presentation, with the assistance of sous chef Tim Tatel, started with gazpacho with goat cheese truffle and sweet bread beignets. The second dish featured roasted veal top round with olive oil Béarnaise sauce and carrots.

Festival Event Coordinator Susan Davis presented Butler with a glass sculpture by festival exhibitor Ken Kahlen to commemorate his win.

But Sisson and the assisting sous chefs didn’t go home empty-handed. They were presented with tickets to the annual gala, which concludes the Pageant of the Masters.

“This was a competition, but it was also a fun day in Laguna,” said Chef Laurent Brazier of Laguna Culinary Arts, who hosted the event.

Brazier gave a play-by-play account for the standing-room-only crowd that watched the two chefs prepare and cook their creations in two cooking stations set up on the grass at the center of the festival grounds.

“Putting together an event like this on grass is amazing,” said third judge, Zov Karamardian, award-winning owner of Zov’s Bistro.

Her honors include the Governor’s Office Chef of the Year, Southern California Restaurant Writers Restaurateur of the Year and James Beard Foundation’s Angel Award.

She recently completed a self-published cookbook, “Zov: Recipes and Memories from the Heart,” a collection of more than 100 recipes that blend contemporary Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines.

The makeshift kitchens were fully equipped for the competition, except for the presentation plates, which the chefs brought from their hotels.

“We rolled the kitchens all along the streets from our kitchen because the racks wouldn’t fit in a U-haul,” Brazier said.

Cort and Laguna Beach High School Scholarship Foundation trustee Diane Kloke were among the cooking aficionados who came to the festival especially for the “food fight.”

“I am a big fan of ‘Iron Chef,’ who has been a staple on the Food Channel for years,” she said, earning a well-deserved groan for the pun, even if it was unintentional.

“I love to cook and we came just for this,” said Peppertree Lane manager Katie Moss, who attended with friend, Tom Greenwell. “We are in a cooking group together.”

Annie Hongkhan came to the event to cheer on Sisson, with whom she works at the Ritz Carlton.

Festival exhibitor Terry Manchester took a little break from her booth to watch the competition with Nancy Schipper, who works in John Tolle’s booth.

“I watch ‘Top Chef ‘every week and I wouldn’t have missed this,” Schipper said, munching on a slice of pizza.

Not everyone in the crowd came for the cook-off.

“We came for the art, but we got sucked in,” said Ted Wysowksi, of Diamond Bar and San Clemente.

“But this is art, too,” said his wife, Carolyn.

After an intermission, Culinary Arts student cooks Lan Nguyen, Amy Fiztpatrick, Analisa Ocana Albert and Irene Saldano competed, with beef tenderloin the secret ingredient.

Judges Vigneron, Jacobi and Karamardian gave the nod to the Nguyen/Fiztpatrick team.