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Friday December 14, 2007

Two local culinary whizzes vie for cook-off title

by stacey palevsky
staff writer

Culinary rule No. 73: Do not marinate fish.

Evan Levy didn’t know this when, the night before a dinner party, he soaked salmon in fresh lemon juice and zest. He was trying to make lemon salmon pasta.

“It was the most disgusting dish I ever had,” he said. “We all laughed about it, threw it out and had sandwiches instead. My wife and I still laugh about it.”

Thankfully, Levy’s seafood mishap is not representative of his cooking skills. He’s actually the gourmand among his family and friends, known for recreating his grandmother’s stuffed matzah balls and making 100 percent homemade pizza.

The Danville resident will show off his kitchen flair Thursday, Dec. 20 during the semifinals of the Simply Manischewitz Cook-Off, held at the Hilton Hotel in downtown San Francisco.

Levy created a modern potato kugel infused with southwestern flavors. Ryan Schwartz of San Francisco reinvented matzah balls by stuffing them with Asian-inspired ingredients and spices.

They are two of 10 contestants from the West Coast who will compete for a chance to cook at the finals in New York City. The winner of that final cook-off will receive a $25,000 prize package including a new kitchen.

The cook-off asked interested foodies to submit a recipe that used at least one Manischewitz ingredient. The recipe had to include fewer than eight ingredients (water, salt and pepper did not count toward that total).

The winning recipes were selected by an independent panel of judges, who considered taste (half of a recipe’s score), ease of preparation, appearance and originality.

The contestants will have one hour from prep to table to make their dish, which will be judged by a panel of locals (including j. food columnist Rebecca Ets-Hokin).

Levy, 42, grew up in San Francisco and attended Camp Swig for 13 years. Now married and a father of three, he and his family belong to Congregation Beth Chaim in Danville.

Levy learned to cook from his grandmother, a Latvian immigrant who worked magic in her galley kitchen. “I was her little protégé,” he said.

The southwestern kugel he invented for the cook-off is “a big comfort food in my house. My wife and kids love it.”

Levy is known for a concoction that includes salmon, feta and spinach wrapped in phyllo dough. He developed the recipe after eating something similar at a Los Angeles restaurant. He was on a date with his girlfriend (now wife) and begged the waitress to let him go back into the kitchen to see how the chef made the dish.

Surprisingly, Levy admits he’s not a “recipe person.” That is, he never follows a recipe and never writes down his own original creations, and so can’t oblige a friend when they beg him for a recipe. Even when he makes the same thing two or three times, it never comes out the same way.

Schwartz, 22, considers himself a self-taught cook. He grew up in Houston and currently works for a nonprofit in San Francisco. He and friends often have potluck dinners at his Mission apartment, or spend time experimenting with new recipes in his kitchen.

He concocted his winning recipe with help from his friend Matt. The pair developed a handful of recipes for the cook-off, including gefilte fish salad with toasted nori, sesame seeds and green apples; and Chinese orange chicken with orange jelly candies commonly eaten on Passover.

“It’s fun to create a new cuisine based on the foods we grew up with,” he said.

The Simply Manischewitz Cook-Off semifinals will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 20 at the Hilton Hotel, 750 Kearny St., S.F. Admission is free and all guests will be served a kosher lunch.

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