San Diego Magazine’s “Your Recipe Competition” is searching high and low for the premier, innovative, unique seafood recipe. So get your creative juices flowing, throw on your chefs’ hat and preheat the oven to create your own original recipe! The rules to follow are simple:
- Fresh seafood must be the primary ingredient
- The recipe must somehow incorporate plantains—the “potato of the tropics”
- The healthier the recipe is, the better your chances will be of winning the contest
- Keep the preparation time of the dish at no more than twenty minutes
- Keep the cook time at no more than thirty minutes with no exceptions!
- Do not exceed ten ingredients
- The dish should be enough to feed a family of four
- Recipes for hors d’oeuvre and appetizers need not apply, only entrées!
- Include one photo of the completed entrée with the recipe so the presentation can be included in judging
- This recipe must be original! Meaning not previously published in a cookbook or found in an online recipe—finalists will be asked to certify the dish’s authenticity
- Include a description in thirty or less words of how your dish tastes in all of its scrumptious detail
- There is a $40 limit on all ingredients
The San Diego seafood recipe contest presented by San Diego Magazine will accept submissions beginning September 1st, 2008. Executive Chef Deborah Scott will choose three recipes for inclusion in her menus at Island Prime, Kemo Sabe, and Indigo Grill, three of San Diego’s finest and most delectable restaurants.
Deborah Scott is originally from the Chesapeake Bay area, where she acquired a great appreciation for fresh, delicious seafood at a young age. Fishing trips with her father helped to mold this deep appreciation. In addition to a fine fisherman, Chef Scott’s father was an expert grill master who was nice enough to pass his skills on to his daughter. After she graduated high school, she enrolled at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English.
She then addressed her passion for whipping up gourmet cuisine and began her education at the Culinary Arts at Baltimore International Culinary College where she earned her Associate of Arts degree followed by her graduate studies at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.
Her accomplished resume includes experience as the Executive Sous Chef at the Monterey Plaza Hotel on California’s beautiful central coast as well as the Executive Chef at Mediterraneo, in Alpine, CA. After meeting David Cohn, her soon-to-be partner at the legendary Kemo Sabe restaurant, she began her run of countless successful years as Executive Chef and Owner of a wildly popular and flourishing restaurant business. She now oversees the kitchen at Indigo Grill and Island Prime, in addition to Kemo Sabe.
Kemo Sabe boasts a delectable, Pacific Rim inspired menu, a spectacular décor, local on tap microbrews, and over fifty different wine varietals. This award winning restaurant is the recipient of countless acknowledgements, including Best Chef from the San Diego Reader, the Silver Fork Award from San Diego Home and Garden, Chef of the Year from San Diego Online, and Best Contemporary Cuisine from the Union-Tribune, to name a few.
The Indigo Grill is located in fashionable Little Italy, just a few blocks from San Diego’s gaslamp district. The cuisine and the atmosphere is a combination of symmetrical, primitive, and elegant touches that takes its diners from the glaciers of Antarctica to the festive south of Mexico.
Island Prime offers unparalleled views of Coronado and the dazzling San Diego skyline along with outdoor, waterfront seating. Enjoy an extensive wine list, a happening cocktail bar with a casual and more formal menu, as well as a great happy hour.
Chef Scott’s impeccable stability in churning out deliciously contemporary dishes can only be attributed to her carefully honed talent and dedication in addition to her formal education. States Scott:
“I am still making adjustments on menu recipes and items that I did years ago. I think that’s important. It’s never a finished product, there are always changes. There are always things to be done to improve, keep it fresher, to keep changing into what’s indigenous to the time.”
Those individuals lucky enough to have a seafood recipe judged in this contest by such an esteemed chef should keep these words in mind and meld their dishes into fresh, innovative, and modern works of art. Good luck!
