JUNEAU, ALASKA, JUNE 9, 2006. Five accomplished Alaska chefs will be pitting their talents against one another this week at the Great Alaska Seafood Cook-Off, vying for the opportunity to represent Alaska in a national competition.

The dishes created by the Alaska chefs will be judged by team of celebrity chefs from outside Alaska as part of the invitation-only event in Anchorage June 15, sponsored by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI).  

Competing Alaska chefs are:
Chef James Adkison, Executive Chef, Sacks Café and Restaurant, Anchorage
Chef Joel Chenet, Executive Chef/Owner, Mill Bay Coffee and Pastry, Kodiak
Chef Naomi Everett, Executive Chef, Settler’s Bay Lodge, Wasilla
Chef Patrick Hoogerhyde, Executive Chef, ORSO, Anchorage
Chef David Moorehead, Executive Chef, Westmark Baranof Hotel, Juneau

The chefs will prepare their entries at individual cooking stations, according to the same rules applied to the national competition, before a live audience. “They are all very talented chefs, and it won’t be easy to choose the winner,” points out ASMI executive director Ray Riutta, “but only one will be selected for the top honor: they’ll be asked by Governor Murkowski to represent Alaska at the Great American Seafood Cook-Off in New Orleans this August.”

Judging the entries are three celebrity chefs, each of whom has his own restaurant.  Chef John Besh of New Orleans, took the top prize at the national event in 2004. Besh’s enterprise, named restaurant August, was one of the first to open following the depradations of Hurricane Katrina. The other judges are Chef Randy Lewis, of Matanzas Creek in Sonoma, California, and Chef Robert Wiedmaier, of Marcels, in Washington, D.C.

The competition is sponsored by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. For more information about competing chefs and celebrity chef judges, visit the ASMI homepage and click on the Great Alaska Seafood Cook-Off.

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For more information please contact Laura Fleming, (907) 465-5563, and on June 14, 15, 16 at (907) 723-7341.