Potato Grower

Wisconsin Potato Grower/Chef Competition featured at Celebrate Plover By Dana Rady, Director of Promotion, Communication & Consumer Education, Wisconsin Potato & Vegetable Growers Association Potato growers know how to grow quality potatoes, and chefs know how to cook quality food. But how well do Wisconsin potato growers cook, and how creative are chefs when it comes to cooking Wisconsin potatoes? We found out on July 28, with the very first Wisconsin Potato/Chef Competition, which was held in Lake Pacawa Park at the city of Plover's Celebrate Plover event. It turned out to be a beautiful and incredibly fun day full of hard work, high energy and excitement, not to mention relationship-building between growers and foodservice professionals, as well as consumer themselves. But before we delve into the competitive part of the day, let's touch on the educational portion that began everything. The day began with each of the four teams participating in a tasting panel, which involved specific potato varieties (three russet, three red and three gold that were also featured in the competition) that were prepared unadulterated (with no seasonings, flavorings or pairings). The three russet varieties featured were Norkotah, Silverton and Gold Rush; the three red varieties featured were Norland, Rooster and Red Mimi; the three gold varieties featured were Yukon, Elfe and Gold Agata. Okray Family Farms of Plover and Alsum Farms of Friesland provided all the potatoes for the tasting panel, as well as for the competition itself. Each of these varieties was featured whole as a raw and a baked potato so the teams could rate the visual characteristics. Each team was then able to try these varieties boiled and baked, and rate each one according to appearance, flavor, texture and overall impression. This process allowed the chefs to really delve into how different varieties of the same potato type can be, and also allowed the chefs to converse with their teammates not only about the varieties, but also about the farmers' growing practices and farm organization. Once the tasting panel ended, each team had to put those potatoes and their characteristics to good use in creative, potato-centric dishes. Each dish could only include the potato varieties featured in the tasting panel and had to incorporate as many locally sourced ingredients as possible. Preparing an appetizer in 30 minutes kicked off the first round of the competition. Each team also had to incorporate a mystery ingredient of fresh mint from Gumz Farms. As the crowd that had gathered in the large tent counted down from 10 seconds in unison, each team plated its appetizer and anxiously waited to find out which of them the judges would eliminate. The three judges were Plover police chief Dan Ault, Wisconsin potato grower Andy Diercks of Coloma Farms, and Peter Idsvoog, executive chef of Two Oaks North in Wautoma. These three had the challenging job of tasting each dish and rating them from each round according the following criteria: creativity, taste, saleability (would you order this on a menu?), and appearance. Round 1 resulted in one team going home as the third-place winner. The remaining teams anxiously awaited the next round, which required them to cook up a main dish in 45 minutes. The mystery ingredient for the main dish round was rye whiskey from Great Northern Distilling in Plover, which provided a nice, creative twist that brought some ingenuity to light. Once the judges had come to a consensus on who would go home after the main dish round, it was down to two teams competing for the runner-up versus the grand prize winner in the third and final round: dessert. The dessert had to be completed in 30 minutes and incorporate the mystery ingredient of fresh blueberries from Flyte Family Farms. For this round, the two remaining teams were given a box of dehydrated potatoes so as to speed up the preparation process. Throughout this entire competition, each team could only utilize a Big Green Egg grill and an open-flame burner for cooking. They also had a supply table, a preparation table and two gallons of water per team for boiling and were given $75 per team to purchase 24 POTATO GROWER | DECEMBER 2018

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