Cooks Cook Off at Western Home

The passion continues to grow at Western Home Communities thanks to Executive Chef Norman Grant.  Norman is inspiring our team to be more creative and share their creative side with us.  This months Cooks Cook Off was held in the Windcove dining room where we had about 20 residents and a dozen staff members watch and taste the creative dishes made by 7 of our cooks.  This month's winner was Timothy Knudson, a Lead Cook at Windhaven Assisted Living.  Mandatory ingredients were pork, fresh corn, and a secret ingredient tossed in at the last minute, peaches.  Tim's winning dish was Dry BBQ Rub Pork Tenderloin with sweet corn-potato hash, caramelized peaches, and tarragon cream sauce.  The dish was presented beautifully and the flavors exploded in your mouth. 
Second place went to Brandy Berky,  Brandy's dish of Pork Tenderloin, Corn Salsa, and a stuffed sweet potato made it a very tight race with the winner being decided by timing, and Brandy had turned her dish in late.  Brandy wasn't sure what to do with the peach with her dish and her creative juices started to flow - she stuffed a sweet potato with caramelized peaches and topped it with toasted marshmallows, that component of Brandy's dish was something of a true chef and was the single most winning component of any of the dishes.  Congratulations to all our competitors on another successful challenge.  Next month's contest will be a Meatloaf contest where we will find a new and improve meatloaf recipe to add to our collection.

Randy Husted
General Manager of Dining Services
Western Home Communities