Admission to the chef competition and date night are free for ticket holders to the evening’s 8 p.m. performance by the world-renowned Aspen Santa Fe Ballet dance company.
The amateur chefs will compete on six “Big Green Egg” grills incorporating recipes featuring beef, chicken, and pork. Led by Times Union food writer and critic Steve Barnes, the two-stage competition will culminate at the Saratoga Wine & Food and Concours d’Elegance festival on September 7.
Sica’s recipe will be steak fajitas, spicy chipotle mole, goat cheese-stuffed roasted tomato, roasted corn salad and cilantro-lime vinaigrette.
Other local contestants and their recipes include: Tony Buscema, Albany, Jamaican jerk pork, black beans and rice, Caribbean root vegetable medley; Eric Johnson, Slingerlands, braised and smoked beef rib, Smithwick’s beer reduction, bourbon-infused sweet mashed potato, chipotle butter, pickled braised cabbage slaw; Rob Johnson, Castleton, Double Play BBQ “Cheap’’ Chicken, roasted Southwest crossover salad, grilled Brooklyn-style potato wedges; Jill Kavanagh, Troy, Teriyaki-glazed pork tenderloin stuffed with spicy grilled pineapple salsa, mango slaw, couscous; John White, Queensbury, bone-in pork rib, raspberry-hefeweizen reduction, roasted rosemary purple potatoes, summer corn salad.
The top winner will receive a prize package courtesy of Adirondack Appliance valued at $1,700 including a large Big Green Egg grill, place setter and heat diffuser, pizza stone and rolling wood table.
Prizes for other top winners will include grill and barbecue gear, gift cards and cookbooks.
The competition is an added feature of this week’s Sage Colleges “Date Night” Pre-Show from 6 – 8 p.m. which is highlighted by complimentary wine and food tastings and Saratoga Photobooth photos.
An 8 p.m. mixed repertory performance by Aspen Santa Fe Ballet headlines the evening. One of the premier contemporary ballet companies in America, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet is marking its debut engagement at SPAC this week with three performances over the course of two days, July 24 and 25.
