Hawaii chef James Aptakin and his Team Hawaii won the seafood competition at the fifth annual World Food Championships in Orange Beach, Ala. — bragging rights that came with $15,000.
Aptakin also was named reserve champion, “which is a more romantic way of saying second place,” he said. His score, as published on the championships’ website, was just 0.25 points shy of the 91 scored by the first-place winner, Kari Luke from Illinois. She won the overall competition with a rib-eye steak at the event staged Nov. 9-13.
Competitors included 450 teams from 20 countries and 48 states, and each team had three to four people, Aptakin said.
The competitors ranged from chefs with Michelin stars to those who had won the Food Network’s “Guy’s Grocery Games” three consecutive times, he said. Aptakin had been on that show as well, and despite glowing comments from host Guy Fieri and other judges that were cut in the final edit, he was eliminated.
“It was the most stress I’d ever endured in any competition,” he said.
While the World Food Championship also was stressful, it was spread out over several days, and he and his team submitted four dishes for judging.
Hawaii has never been represented in the competition, so he wanted to bring as many local ingredients, flavors, techniques and sensibilities as possible, he said. For instance, he brought locally sourced hamachi, Aloha Shoyu and Hawaiian hearts of palm.
The first two rounds were just to qualify for the money rounds, for which teams had to round up additional ingredients.
He had food products shipped in overnight, he said. “Other contestants got me products in another state, or some type of hookup.” He went to a supermarket for duck fat, and people thought he was crazy, “but then another chef walked up and also asked for duck fat.”
The process was akin to throwing darts at a board and seeing which one sticks, he said. “I ordered produce from three different companies, I ordered fish from three different companies. The same products,” he said. He had a plan A, plan B and plan C, just to make sure he had backup.
For Round 3, contestants were required to use Gulf Coast seafood, Creole flavors and adobo seasoning.
“Growing up in Miami, I know a little bit about Southern cuisine,” he said. So Team Hawaii’s Creole Seafood Tower included shrimp ceviche Creole, ahi chimichurri Creole and stone crab with smoked salsa verde Creole, all layered with avocado mousse and Thai mustard Creole creme fraiche, served with a pipette of Creole chili oil to be “injected” into the dish.
Topped with a sweet potato chip from Hawaiian Chip Co., it was a creation that won $10,000.
The last dish prepared was halibut seared with brown butter and duck fat, with lobster tom yum broth, lobster truffle-duck fat mashed potatoes, stone crab ceviche salsa and lobster chili oil, which won Team Hawaii another $5,000 and the title of reserve champion.
Aptakin was executive chef at Hilton Waikiki Beach and its award-winning MAC 24/7 restaurant for about five years but gave notice two weeks before the competition. His focus now is on projects including a cookbook and the relaunch of his catering company Layers of Flavor, established in 2008 when he lived in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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