An online cooking contest to cap off Inuvik's Tourism Week has netted the Inuvik Food Bank a $200 donation, with the Town of Inuvik donating $100 to the charity and the town's first 'Chopped' champion Bob Eldridge donating his $100 prize to the cause.
'Chopped' is a popular cooking show where four chefs are given four mystery ingredients to complete an appetizer, entrée and dessert, with one chef being eliminated each round after their meals are judged. The last one standing gets a $10,000 prize.
'Inuvik Chopped' instead opted to have six competitors use six mystery ingredients to create a three-course meal over an hour. Mayor Natasha Kulikowski, Jackie Challis, Hannah Prestage and Luisa Ospina judged the grub.
During the initial Facebook Live broadcast on June 5, 90 people tuned in and the video has since received over 1,800 views.
Cooks were handed a mystery bag containing a lemon, saltines, green onions, canned peaches, Yorkshire pudding mix and Klik canned meat. Cooks were free to use any ingredients in their pantry to create their dish. Meals were judged based on their creativity and presentation.
"The hardest ingredient to use was the spam. I've never cooked with spam before," said Eldridge as he prepared his winning dishes — Caramelized spam with a lemon and peach sauce along with stuffed Yorkshire pudding and salted crackers with a chocolate ganache topping.
"Cooking is nothing new for me, but I've always wanted to do something like this," he said. "It's been a great experience. There's been great meals by everyone, I'm amazed by all the great ideas."
Also throwing their chef's hat in the ring were Evan Pound, Faye d'Eon-Eggertson, Jena Mailloux, Jasmine Firth and Greta Sittichinli.
Here's Eldridge's winning recipes:
Caramelized spam with a lemon and peach sauce
- Cut spam into sticks, (like French fries)
- Roll them in brown sugar and fry in olive oil, put on platter.
- In a sauce pan put peaches, lemon juice, green onions, and marshmallows and fry.
- Add heavy cream and simmer until thickened.
- Pour over caramelized spam and serve with crushed waffle cone on top.
Stuffed Yorkshire pudding
- Fry up the bacon, mushrooms, baby tomato's, green onions, add butter and melt.
- Add a pinch of thyme, garlic powder, and rosemary leaves, seasoning salt, add flour, then add stock to thicken to right consistency.
- Pour over Yorkshire pudding and serve
Salted crackers with chocolate ganache topping
- Take the crackers and spread the chocolate ganache on them.
- Put a cherry on each one.
- Sprinkle cooked coconut on the top of them while the chocolate is still warm.