REI Camp Stove Cookoff
The REI Camp Stove Cook-Off, 2003
In early May, while looking through event listings for my area on the internet, I saw a notice of a cooking contest sponsored by REI, my favorite outdoor gear store. The finalists all got stoves and cooksets, and first prize was a $1000 donation to a conservation charity and a huge camping kitchen. I had a smoked salmon & tortellini recipe I'd made a few times on the trail and decided to enter it. The folks I'd served it to hadn't complained too much and it seemed like something I could cook in the allotted time (30 minutes).
So I followed the notice on-line to an entry page and started by looking at previous winning recipes. My dish had been made on the fly, just throwing in ingredients in whatever amounts seemed right...turning it into a written recipe was going to be interesting. I spent a few days on the chore, measuring things at home to figure out how much pasta to use and how much salt, and finally came up with something that seemed about right. I added a bit of whimsy, specifying that it be served with red wine and recommended sampling the wine during cooking. I figured it might make the submission stand out. The submission page demanded a name, so I settled on Trail Tortellini Supreme and my entry was on its way.
Though I knew the recipe was good, I didn't hold out much hope of being selected as a finalist. One of the previous winners had been a similar noodle and smoked salmon dish and both were really just glorified versions of the classic macaroni & cheese and tuna beloved by hikers everywhere. Surely there would be many more creative entries that would win out. Sure enough, the date when the finalists were chosen passed by and I had received no word from REI. I gave them a few more days, sent out some whining e-mails to friends to gripe about not being chosen, and deleted the recipe from my computer.
Later that afternoon, Jane called from home and said REI had called looking for me. I was busy at the time, so I had her call them back and sure enough, I'd been chosen as a finalist. I got the number and called the contact (Gribbin) myself to finalize the details. His primary interest was in my availability to appear at the cook-off on the 14th. When I confirmed that I could he told me I was now a finalist. Cynical me assumed that the first 40 "finalists" couldn't make it on that date, hence the delay getting in touch with me, but no matter...I was in.
So now I was faced with having to actually cook the danged thing. In public. With a time limit. On an unfamiliar stove. Worst of all, I joked, the judges weren't likely to have hiked all day before eating. When I cook on the trail I can count upon my "customers" being hungry enough to eat fried dirt! So I spent most of a week in a state of mild panic, triple checking ingredients, re-reading the recipe, and asking questions of Gribbin. How many judges? Would there be water? How to serve the food?
The final question turned out to be the most interesting. 30% of the scoring was based on presentation, and there were no guidelines for individual versus family-style servings. Gribbin said there would be plates available to give the judges their samples, and I considered just using them, but Jane convinced me to hedge my bet and bring along Frisbees. That's what I use when I eat on the trail and I'd mentioned maybe using them for the contest. Jane thought they'd make a fun impression and I agreed to have them available just in case they seemed appropriate to use. She also got me to bring the red wine I'd suggested in the recipe. Again, I didn't have to serve it but I'd have it just in case.
The day of the contest arrived and I made my last-minute preparations...filling baggies with ingredients, running out to the store for Frisbees and garlic bread (also specified as an accompaniment in the recipe), quadruple-checking all of the ingredients and loading everything into a backpack. For water I filled a 2.5 gallon collapsible jug and put it in the bottom of the pack. The final detail was clothing. I wanted to make something of an impression, figuring a little charm might help my cause. I wore hiking shorts and boots, a Hopkinton ball cap, a brightly-colored Hawaiian shirt and a t-shirt with a photo of Andy cooking up mac & cheese on his first camping trip when he was just 4.
At last it was time to go. I lifted up the backpack and water poured out! The water jug had a leak. I quickly unloaded everything, dried out the pack, grabbed a gallon jug of spring water from the pantry, re-packed and headed out the door.
We arrived at REI right on time and things were already happening. The Cook-Off was part of a day-long food festival, with vendors offering samples and such.
To kill time, I chatted with the woman sharing the table with me. There were 5 of us in total...2 each on two tables and one more on his own. The woman at my table wasn't a hiker at all, but she loved to cook. Her roommate worked at REI and convinced her to submit an entry. I enjoyed hearing her deal with questions from the MC, the reporters and the judges about her experiences cooking her dish (a tuna noodle creation) on the trail. Another woman had some hiking experience and she made a trail stew. Her tablemate was a stay-at-home mom who made steak fajitas, and the final contestant was another guy who was a Scout leader. He was offering a spicy peanut soup.
For liability reasons Gribbin had to light the stoves, and we had those going at a low flame when we finally got started. The MC announced the event, welcomed the crowd, had each of us introduce ourselves, then gave the order to cook.
At last the pasta was done enough to set aside while I worked on the salmon topping. I drained the excess water from the tomatoes & mushrooms, though I had trouble with that at first. I wasn't used to the pot and lid and was terrified that I'd dump it all, but I managed to figure out a way to pour off just the liquid, which I added to the pasta water. By now I was in hyperdrive and I was grabbing small baggies of ingredients and dumping them in the saute pot while trying to remember to stir the mix so it wouldn't burn.
So that was it except for the judging. I looked around at the havoc I'd created...it was quite a mess. My tablemate, having finished well ahead of me, had watched most of my effort with what I'll call horrified amusement. Either resigned to losing to me or amazed that I wasn't injuring myself!
We all congratulated each other, took some victory pictures, then I packed up, collected my prize and departed.
Notes:
In early May, while looking through event listings for my area on the internet, I saw a notice of a cooking contest sponsored by REI, my favorite outdoor gear store. The finalists all got stoves and cooksets, and first prize was a $1000 donation to a conservation charity and a huge camping kitchen. I had a smoked salmon & tortellini recipe I'd made a few times on the trail and decided to enter it. The folks I'd served it to hadn't complained too much and it seemed like something I could cook in the allotted time (30 minutes).
So I followed the notice on-line to an entry page and started by looking at previous winning recipes. My dish had been made on the fly, just throwing in ingredients in whatever amounts seemed right...turning it into a written recipe was going to be interesting. I spent a few days on the chore, measuring things at home to figure out how much pasta to use and how much salt, and finally came up with something that seemed about right. I added a bit of whimsy, specifying that it be served with red wine and recommended sampling the wine during cooking. I figured it might make the submission stand out. The submission page demanded a name, so I settled on Trail Tortellini Supreme and my entry was on its way.
Though I knew the recipe was good, I didn't hold out much hope of being selected as a finalist. One of the previous winners had been a similar noodle and smoked salmon dish and both were really just glorified versions of the classic macaroni & cheese and tuna beloved by hikers everywhere. Surely there would be many more creative entries that would win out. Sure enough, the date when the finalists were chosen passed by and I had received no word from REI. I gave them a few more days, sent out some whining e-mails to friends to gripe about not being chosen, and deleted the recipe from my computer.
Later that afternoon, Jane called from home and said REI had called looking for me. I was busy at the time, so I had her call them back and sure enough, I'd been chosen as a finalist. I got the number and called the contact (Gribbin) myself to finalize the details. His primary interest was in my availability to appear at the cook-off on the 14th. When I confirmed that I could he told me I was now a finalist. Cynical me assumed that the first 40 "finalists" couldn't make it on that date, hence the delay getting in touch with me, but no matter...I was in.
So now I was faced with having to actually cook the danged thing. In public. With a time limit. On an unfamiliar stove. Worst of all, I joked, the judges weren't likely to have hiked all day before eating. When I cook on the trail I can count upon my "customers" being hungry enough to eat fried dirt! So I spent most of a week in a state of mild panic, triple checking ingredients, re-reading the recipe, and asking questions of Gribbin. How many judges? Would there be water? How to serve the food?
The final question turned out to be the most interesting. 30% of the scoring was based on presentation, and there were no guidelines for individual versus family-style servings. Gribbin said there would be plates available to give the judges their samples, and I considered just using them, but Jane convinced me to hedge my bet and bring along Frisbees. That's what I use when I eat on the trail and I'd mentioned maybe using them for the contest. Jane thought they'd make a fun impression and I agreed to have them available just in case they seemed appropriate to use. She also got me to bring the red wine I'd suggested in the recipe. Again, I didn't have to serve it but I'd have it just in case.
The day of the contest arrived and I made my last-minute preparations...filling baggies with ingredients, running out to the store for Frisbees and garlic bread (also specified as an accompaniment in the recipe), quadruple-checking all of the ingredients and loading everything into a backpack. For water I filled a 2.5 gallon collapsible jug and put it in the bottom of the pack. The final detail was clothing. I wanted to make something of an impression, figuring a little charm might help my cause. I wore hiking shorts and boots, a Hopkinton ball cap, a brightly-colored Hawaiian shirt and a t-shirt with a photo of Andy cooking up mac & cheese on his first camping trip when he was just 4.
At last it was time to go. I lifted up the backpack and water poured out! The water jug had a leak. I quickly unloaded everything, dried out the pack, grabbed a gallon jug of spring water from the pantry, re-packed and headed out the door.
We arrived at REI right on time and things were already happening. The Cook-Off was part of a day-long food festival, with vendors offering samples and such.
I made my way into the contest area, found a nameplate marking my cooking spot, introduced myself to Gribbin and some other folks involved with the event, and settled in. The other contestants arrived at about the same time and we all milled about and looked nervous. Slowly things started to come together as the MC and a DJ (both from a local radio station) arrived, along with reporters and photographers from local papers, and we began to get ready to cook. We set up our stoves and checked out the cookpots, put out our ingredients, and just awaited the signal to start.
To kill time, I chatted with the woman sharing the table with me. There were 5 of us in total...2 each on two tables and one more on his own. The woman at my table wasn't a hiker at all, but she loved to cook. Her roommate worked at REI and convinced her to submit an entry. I enjoyed hearing her deal with questions from the MC, the reporters and the judges about her experiences cooking her dish (a tuna noodle creation) on the trail. Another woman had some hiking experience and she made a trail stew. Her tablemate was a stay-at-home mom who made steak fajitas, and the final contestant was another guy who was a Scout leader. He was offering a spicy peanut soup.
For liability reasons Gribbin had to light the stoves, and we had those going at a low flame when we finally got started. The MC announced the event, welcomed the crowd, had each of us introduce ourselves, then gave the order to cook.
I dumped my tortellini into the larger of the two pots, added water, put it on the stove and cranked up the flame as high as it would go. With dry pasta, I knew it would take a while to cook. My tablemate got her stove & water going as well and within a few minutes had a nice rolling boil going. I checked under the lid of my pot and found warm water, a few bubbles, but no boiling. I figured it was just because I'd already added the pasta and gave it a bit longer, but after a few more minutes it was evident that something was wrong. There was definitely a flame going, but it wasn't very intense, at least in my opinion. I'd never used a propane stove before, so I wasn't really sure, but it didn't seem right. I especially noticed the sound. These little stoves sound like tiny jet engines when going full throttle and mine was barely hissing.
Finally Jane went to find Gribbin and he came over to check. He agreed that something was wrong and tried a few things with the fuel canister before switching me to a new stove. He lit that one and...the same thing. A small, weak flame. A few more things were tried, and then a third stove was brought in. This one worked perfectly, and in no time I had a great rolling boil going but I'd fallen far behind the others. The judges had already sampled the steak fajitas and the soup and were heading for the stew.
Finally Jane went to find Gribbin and he came over to check. He agreed that something was wrong and tried a few things with the fuel canister before switching me to a new stove. He lit that one and...the same thing. A small, weak flame. A few more things were tried, and then a third stove was brought in. This one worked perfectly, and in no time I had a great rolling boil going but I'd fallen far behind the others. The judges had already sampled the steak fajitas and the soup and were heading for the stew.
My tablemate had turned off her stove and was serving her dish as I poured off some water to rehydrate my tomatoes and mushrooms, then kept sampling my pasta to see if it was done yet. Gribbin came over to let me know I'd get a few more minutes because of the stove troubles, but things were wrapping up and I felt a bit under the gun (though in a good way).
At last the pasta was done enough to set aside while I worked on the salmon topping. I drained the excess water from the tomatoes & mushrooms, though I had trouble with that at first. I wasn't used to the pot and lid and was terrified that I'd dump it all, but I managed to figure out a way to pour off just the liquid, which I added to the pasta water. By now I was in hyperdrive and I was grabbing small baggies of ingredients and dumping them in the saute pot while trying to remember to stir the mix so it wouldn't burn.
I almost forgot the oil, and the salt & peppers were a late addition as well. Finally came the salmon. I ripped open the package with my teeth, spilling juice all over the table, then crumbled the fish into the pot with my hands and continued the saute.
When the fish mix was done, I set it aside to rest and turned to draining the pasta and preparing the plates. Out came the Frisbees (an excellent decision) and out came the wine. By this point I'd decided to go for it. The rules didn't say I COULDN'T serve wine! I managed to drain the tortellini without dumping it in the waste bin (though it was close for a bit), remembered to add the black truffle oil, also remembered to add the Mongolian Fire Oil to the fish mix, then plated things up. A good helping of the pasta, topped with a portion of the salmon mix, a slice of garlic bread and a sprig of parsley from my garden.
When the fish mix was done, I set it aside to rest and turned to draining the pasta and preparing the plates. Out came the Frisbees (an excellent decision) and out came the wine. By this point I'd decided to go for it. The rules didn't say I COULDN'T serve wine! I managed to drain the tortellini without dumping it in the waste bin (though it was close for a bit), remembered to add the black truffle oil, also remembered to add the Mongolian Fire Oil to the fish mix, then plated things up. A good helping of the pasta, topped with a portion of the salmon mix, a slice of garlic bread and a sprig of parsley from my garden.
At the last minute I remembered the parmesan cheese, and I grated it on to each plate as the judges stood by. And the crowning touch...small plastic cups of red wine. I wasn't sure how they'd be received, but the judges all really enjoyed them. At least two judges said I certainly won the presentation aspect.
So that was it except for the judging. I looked around at the havoc I'd created...it was quite a mess. My tablemate, having finished well ahead of me, had watched most of my effort with what I'll call horrified amusement. Either resigned to losing to me or amazed that I wasn't injuring myself!
I cleaned up as best as I could, poured myself a cup of my wine and relaxed at last. Two of the judges had come through soon after I finished but the third spent some time with another contestant before coming over. He was a big guy who worked at REI. Two earrings, and just back from a month hiking in Alaska. We had a nice talk and after sampling my dish he said he wished I had been along as their cook!
The judging took quite a while and the MC came out to announce that there was a tie that they were working to break.
The judging took quite a while and the MC came out to announce that there was a tie that they were working to break.
Finally a decision was reached. The runner-up was the woman with the hiker stew and the winner was...me!
Maybe it was the food, maybe it was the wine, maybe it was my shirt, maybe it was my perky personality, maybe it was pity because of my stove troubles, maybe it was the Frisbees... In any case I was proclaimed the winner and Trail Tortellini Supreme now joins the ranks of the immortal!
We all congratulated each other, took some victory pictures, then I packed up, collected my prize and departed.
Notes:
- At various times during the contest I had reporters from the Globe and the Metrowest Daily News interviewing me. It was interesting trying to cook and come up with intelligent answers to, "What's the most important factor when cooking on the trail?" After the fact I realized that I sounded like I never ate anything but tortellini on my hikes.
- My friend (and former boss) Brian was at the event with his friend Kris, and he was taking pictures through the contest. Brian's quite into photography and actually had the same high-end digital camera as the professional photographer from the newspaper.
- Jane & Andy were there (of course), but I don't really recall seeing them much during the cooking. Perhaps they knew to stay out of my way or perhaps I was just too frantic.
- Besides the guy from REI, the other two judges were the program director from the radio station - a rock 'n roller with bleached hair - and a writer for Backpacker magazine. A very nice lady. I told her I'd read her work and envied her for her job. She tried to tell me that it was hard work but I wasn't convinced.
- The $1000 donation I won went to the Hopkinton Area Land Trust. As for the camping kitchen...it wasn't something I could use. Too big & heavy for backpacking, and car camping wasn't my thing. I recalled hearing one of the other contestants (the guy who made the spicy peanut soup) say he was associated with a Scout troop, and I figured they could make good use of it. I managed to contact him and we made arrangements to meet and pass along the kitchen. Who knows...it might still be being used!
- In the end, I wound up with a nice cook set and stove for my win (and the glory, of course!). The following year, the winners of each of the regional cook-offs were flown to Colorado to participate in a national cook-off. Oh well...
