Minnesota Cooks celebrates Minnesota food
By Janet Kubat Willette
jkubat@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 09/02/2010 9:24 AM
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Minnesota Cooks brings together farmers, chefs and people who like to eat in Carousel Park at the Minnesota State Fair.
Held the Tuesday of the fair, Minnesota Cooks is in its eighth year. Shows begin at 9 a.m. and run through 5 p.m. Aug. 31, said Jill Grunewald, Minnesota Cooks program coordinator.
Each show lasts 45 minutes and features two chefs with a panel of six tasters. Up to four of the tasters are farmers, Grunewald said.
Doug Hilgendorf of Welcome, Minn., will be tasting the food prepared by Dan Patterson of Rabbit's Bakery in Lake City, Minn.
"I know it will be good because he makes very good stuff," said Hilgendorf, who farms and owns Whole Grain Milling Co. He delivers rolled oats, bread whole, corn meal, whole barley, rolled rye and a host of other products to Rabbit's Bakery every other week.
Dan and Hallie Patterson opened Rabbit's Bakery on Lake City's marina in June 2008. They are known for their breads made fresh daily. They serve breakfast, lunch and tempting pastries. Their box lunches are popular with groups who meet in the Lake City area, Dan said.
He focuses on buying local foods and even has his own herb garden.
"There's so much food that we can grow in Minnesota," he said.
Patterson will serve arugula grain salad with smoked bison and sunflower aioli at Minnesota Cooks. Rabbit's Bakery is on stage at 1 p.m. Each chef is asked to prepare 150 samples of what they cook and when their demonstration is done, it's taken down in little serving cups for audience members to enjoy.
Being chosen is to participate in Minnesota Cooks is an honor for Patterson. It's also slightly intimidating, he said, to share the stage with big name chefs from throughout Minnesota.
"I'm really looking forward to seeing some of these other guys do their demos," he said. "There's a lot of big names that are going to be there."
The chefs take food from farmers and turn it into amazing entrees, said Doug Peterson, Minnesota Farmers Union president.
Minnesota Farmers Union and Food Alliance Midwest partner to present Minnesota Cooks.
The intention of Minnesota Cooks was to start a dialogue between farmers and consumers, Peterson said, and what better place to start it than at the Minnesota State Fair where 100,000 people come through the gate everyday.
"We need the consumers to understand farmers, part of that is carrying on the dialogue," he said.
In past years, restaurants were selected first and they picked the farmers who they would work with. This year, the farmers were selected first and they picked the restaurants.
"It really helped us hit a bulls-eye because we wanted new faces in the program," Grunewald said.
Minnesota Cooks is all about Minnesota, just like the state fair, Peterson said, that's why the two work so well together.
Hosts for Minnesota Cooks this year are J.D. Fratzke of the The Strip Club Meat and Fish and Lori Sturdevant of the Star Tribune. Tasters include Mary Lahammer of Twin Cities Public TV, Olympic runner Carrie Tollefson, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Al Franken, Teresa Spaeth of AURI and Don Shelby of WCCO TV.
Hilgendorf hasn't been to Minnesota Cooks before, but he said it's a good way to make people aware of the options they have with foods grown in Minnesota.
The hosts ask meaningful questions and at the same time people are laughing and having a great time, Grunewald said.
About 5,000 people attend the event each year, but Grunewald is hoping for more this year.
"This is the only program that in one day takes everything that's good in Minnesota, puts it on a plate and serves it up for conversation," Peterson said.