World Food Championships Archives

BuzzCatz Coffee and Sweets in Orange Beach

12/04/2017 By: CCPearsoncomment

My best new discovery during our most recent trip to the Alabama Gulf Coast was BuzzCatz Coffee and Sweets at 25689 Canal Road, next to Cosmo’s. If you are a frequent visitor to the area, you have probably already enjoyed the other restaurants owned by Brian and Jodi Harsany — Cosmo’s Restaurant and Bar, opened in 2006, Cobalt Restaurant, 2008, and Luna’s Eat and Drink, which opened in 2016 about the same time as BuzzCatz.

Cosmo’s, Luna’s (both named for rescue pets owned by the Harsanys) and Cobalt all open at 11:00 a.m. seven days a week and stay open until 9:30 p.m, except on Friday and Saturday when they extend their hours until 10:00 p.m. So, it became obvious that a need for breakfast, coffee and sweets was waiting to be filled. Harsany wrestled with the name until he walked into the new place under construction complaining about feeling “buzzed” because of all the coffees he’d been sampling. As before, he wanted a cat theme in recognition of his love for 4-legged critters. Thus, BuzzCatz was christened.

Exterior of BuzzCatz next to Cosmo’s in Orange Beach.

I learned about BuzzCatz when I was doing research for Edible Lower Alabama before going to the World Food Championships in November. I was looking for chefs who would be competing from Edible’s coverage area of Montgomery to Mobile and the Alabama Gulf Coast. I found out Juanita Hendrix, who is the manager and assistant pastry chef at BuzzCatz, would be competing in the Bacon category. Chef Kimberly Asbury, head pastry chef at BuzzCatz, served as her Sous Chef in the competition.

Manager and pastry chef Juanita Hendrix and me.

Breakfast is served every morning at BuzzCatz from 7:00 to 11:00 a.m. Every morning has a different theme in terms of its daily special: Flap Jack Monday, Tortilla Tuesday, Waffle Wednesday, EGGstraordinary Thursday, French Toast Friday, Saturday Classic, and (woohoo, woohoo) Cinnamon Roll Sunday. And, we “just happened” to visit on a Sunday morning. For that particular special, you can have your favorite breakfast sandwich inside of a warm yeasty cinnamon roll. Oh yes! Steve had a blueberry biscuit, and we shared BuzzCatz’s version of Scotch eggs topped with Red Onion Jam.

Breakfast sandwich on a cinnamon roll.

Scotch Egg topped with Red Onion Jam

Red Onion Jam is made in-house every Saturday and Sunday. Juanita shared the recipe, and it was published last week here for Edible Lower Alabama.

The structured dish required by all contestants in the Bacon category at WFC 2017 was Quiche Lorraine. Here is the recipe concocted by Juanita and Kimberly for that competition.

Light lunches of wraps, salads and quiche are served to the lunch crowd, then the rest of the hours of operation are devoted to pastries and sweet delights of all kinds. And, don’t forget the coffee. It is roasted in nearby Fairhope where a signature blend has been created especially for BuzzCatz. Steve, the coffee drinker in our marriage, declared it to be exceptionally good.

House blend coffee

Housemade pop tarts

I highly recommend this little out-of-the-way place. It is clean, attractively decorated, and the food is exceptional.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary meal to facilitate this review. Just remember that I only recommend places I like and believe you would enjoy. Period. 🙂

P.S. Let me just give a quick shout-out to Priester’s Pecans which you will pass as you travel south to Orange Beach on I-65. Take Exit 142, and it is within sight. Here are just a few photos to remind you that you probably DO need to stop and pick up a bag from their latest crop — just in time for holiday baking.

8 Facts I Learned at the 2017 World Food Championships

11/20/2017 By: CCPearsoncomment

Food Sport is SERIOUS business!! Take a look at some of these statistics: During the week of November 7-12, 2017 at the World Food Championships in Orange Beach, AL, 8862 dishes were created and judged. 448 cooking teams participated with 51 of those coming from outside the United States. The event utilized over 400 certified judges and 400 volunteers which included students in 15 area culinary programs. Contestants were both professional chefs and home cooks, and their ages ranged from 14 to 71. The much-touted and very popular Food Network even came to town to document and film the action.
The Food Network filming the action.
A lionfish is edible. Yes. Something with 18 venomous spines can be cleaned and eaten. This fish has become quite a problem in the Gulf of Mexico because it has no native predators, can only be caught by spearfishing, and the females can lay up to 40,000 eggs every 4 days. We may not be able to eat them into submission, but something has to be done. Lion fish are devouring and crowding out the fish we DO want in the Gulf. NUISANCE GROUP is affiliated with Alabama Gulf Seafood, which is one of the sponsors of the World Food Championships. Nuisance stands for “nuisance, underutilized, invasive, sustainable, available, noble culinary endeavors.” Read more about their efforts here. Chef Chris Sherrill, formerly of the Flora-Bama Yacht Club and now owner of SALT Restaurant in San Roc Cay, is spearheading this effort. Steve and I had dinner there last week, and Steve tried lion fish for the first time. It was NOT his favorite, but he was a good sport about it.
Chef Chris Sherrill, owner of SALT Restaurant and organizer of Nuisance Fish initiative.

Lion fish with wild mushroom risotto.

A lion fish — fierce-looking but edible.
A new sausage is now in production that is delicious and actually very good for you. Wampler’s has an All Natural Sausage that contains 327 mg. of omega-3 fatty acids and 15 mcg. of selenium per serving, plus it is rich in DHA and EPA. The hogs are raised completely without antibiotics or growth hormones. The sausage has no gluten, no MSG, no nitrates, nitrites, preservatives, fillers or artificial ingredients. Let’s ask our local grocers to stock it.
Southern oysters are good year-round — not just “in months with an R in them.” Lane Zirlatt, co-owner of Murder Point Oyster Farm in Bayou La Batre, is both fervent and zealous about that fact. He says that the water temperature is such that his guys wear wet suits all but two months out of the year. Every sack of oysters has a traceable tag, so the restaurants can know exactly where they came from. In the summer, the law says they have one hour from the moment they come out of the water until they are refrigerated — based on the outside temperature. At Murder Point, they can get their oysters from the water to mechanical refrigeration in 15 minutes. In terms of a personal testimony, Murder Point Oysters are the best Steve and I have ever tasted. Lane brought some in for the media people at WFC to taste. He shucked them on the spot. Oh, so good! I noticed a little more salt in the taste this year, but after that initial burst of salt came the rich buttery creaminess. Lane explained that Hurricane Nate had stirred up a lot of salt in their area when it roared through a few months ago.
Lane Zirlatt shucking oysters.

Bag of Murder Point Oysters.

Succulent Murder Point oyster — salty and buttery
There are times when it is perfectly acceptable to “play with your food.” In fact, WFC had a lot of fun food games set up especially designed for children. In addition to a cake walk, the Planters Peanuts van and Oscar Weinermobile, there were tents for donut stacking, pumpkin bowling, egg tossing and corn shucking with oven mitts.
Pumpkin bowling.
There is a competition to suit just about any interested foodie. This year Granny Grilling (obviously for older ladies and judged by 20 young people under the age of 16) and Thrilla at the Grilla (pitting 10 first responders against each other) were added to the traditional contests under the headings of Bacon, Barbecue, Burger, Chef, Chili, Dessert, Recipe, Sandwich, Seafood and Steak.
Food can kill you. I know. Food is necessary to sustain life, but for some people, certain foods cause reactions that result in death. In recognition of this reality, WFC hosted a Food Allergy Symposium and brought in Celebrity Chef Elizabeth Falkner to discuss some of the major factors to be considered when cooking for those with food allergies. She demonstrated how to prepare dishes for those who can’t have dairy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, wheat, sesame and corn and suggested many delicious-sounding substitutes. She strongly recommended that diners with such restrictions notify a restaurant ahead of time that you are coming in for a meal. Most chefs will do their best to accommodate the needs, but even so, people with severe allergies must educate themselves very thoroughly.
Chef Elizabeth Falkner at the Allergy Symposium.

Dish prepared for food allergy sufferers.

Dessert prepared for those with food allergies.
Bacon is far more than just a long, skinny strip of meat sitting beside some eggs or pancakes. Since I am a certified judge for the World Food Championships, I had the very fun assignment this year of judging the Top Ten entries in the Bacon category. The judge sitting next to me, by the way, was Bill Stitt, owner of Bill-E’s Bacon in Fairhope, AL. His card reads: “When Berkshire Red Pigs and Chantilly White Pigs Get Together, Magic Happens.” I, of course, didn’t see his score card, but my guess is that he knew a good bacon dish when he tasted it. Oh my goodness! It has been a long time since I saw such an array of imaginatively prepared and heavenly-tasting dishes. Here are a few to make your mouth water.

Do you love to cook? Do you think you have a dish that you make better than anyone else? Do you have a competitive nature? Are you creative and willing to put unusual ingredients together? Are you an adventurous eater? Do you think you’d like to become a certified judge? Check out the World Food Championships website and start asking questions. Maybe I’ve convinced you to find your own place in the Food Sport arena.

HERE COMES THE JUDGE

12/05/2016 By: CCPearson2 Comments

When I was selected to attend the 2016 Food Bloggers Summit in conjunction with the World Food Championships in Orange Beach, I was thrilled. Even though I don’t technically consider myself a food blogger, I have written a lot about food and restaurants here and in other publications, and I have 45+ years of experience being a cook in my own home. And with the growing interest in and popularity for the Food Channel on TV, I couldn’t wait to get an up close view of what great chefs were doing.

Judge Connie about to go into action.

To add to my excitement, I learned that on the last day of the summit, we as participants would be invited to attend a judging certification class and be seated as judges for the first round of the dessert competition. DESSERTS. Did you hear me? For a fluffy, prissy, Southern grandmother, that session had my name written all over it. Bring on the sweets!!

Well, it didn’t take long to learn that there is much more to being a judge than just tasting a dish and giving it a thumbs up or a thumbs down. The World Food Championships uses the E.A.T. judging criteria. 35% of the score is based on EXECUTION, 15% on APPEARANCE, and 50% on TASTE. Each entry was to be judged on its own merit, ranking it on a scale of 1 to 10 in each of those three categories, and it was NOT TO BE COMPARED to any of the other dishes. Believe me, that is much harder than it seems. Especially when 5 different dishes are presented in a very quick procession. While we were at the judging class, we were asked to score two different chef-made burgers. Look at the ones we sampled. I was starving. They were both amazing, but if you look closer, there are subtle and specific ways to judge a superior burger. Color, combination of ingredients, even the size of the bun had to be considered. I don’t know which one ended up with the highest score, because we had to hurry on to the actual competition. But, I will say that both chefs created wonderful burgers. Oh, and as a side note, no, we weren’t expected to eat ALL of both burgers. Mercy, no! We were given much smaller sections of each one to taste.

Bleu cheese burger. Yummy!

Italian burger. Look at the size of that beast!

There were 37 teams of chefs competing in the dessert competition, and 8 different teams of judges were seated to rate the entries. I would love to have seen and sampled all 37 entries, but I doubt that ANYONE could handle that much dessert! Talk about a sugar rush!

The first category was called the Structured Build. The chefs were told in advance that they would be expected to submit their version of orange crepes for this round. Look at the variations on that same theme that my team had to score.

This chocolate crepe was delicious, and the fresh orange gave a great flavor balance.

Chocolate crepe with fresh oranges.

What a pretty dish this one was! It got very high scores for appearance.

An unexpected take on orange crepes.

Orange crepes in sushi form? Only a very imaginative chef would have thought to do that.

Orange crepes in the shape of sushi??

One team decided to go very traditional, but I don’t have a photo to share of that one. You would have had to taste each one, I realize, but based on appearance alone how would you have rated these entries?

Then, the chefs were given a certain amount of time to present their Signature Dessert. Some of these photos were fuzzy because the desserts were whizzing by, but maybe you can get some idea about the wide variety. My team judged 5 dishes in this round.

Spice cake with ice cream and served with a very strong beer. ???!!!

A tiny, light strawberry tart.

Sorry for the blurriness. This was a nutty, oatmeal bar with a mint sauce and basil.

A cupcake filled to the brim with goodies, even raspberries.

Chocolate lava cake with whipped cream and berries.

In a last-minute serendipity, Steve was allowed to take the judging class and judge with a different team in this dessert competition, too. Since we are now both E.A.T. certified, I hope we will have more opportunities to judge in the future. Other categories besides desserts, by the way, were bacon, barbecue, steak, chili, seafood, burgers, sandwich and recipe creation. Are there any budding chefs out there who want to enter in 2017? Check the website for lots of information. You can even see a list of this year’s participants and the scores of the Top 10 in each division.

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