The Campbell River Salmon Festival Seafood Cook-Off was another huge success this year with more public participation than every before.
It got off to a great start on Friday night when oysters were served up to members of the RCMP Musical Ride who also performed in the city last weekend.
This year’s offerings included oyster Rockefeller, oyster stew, smoked oysters, deep fried oysters, and barbecued oysters with a garlic chili sauce – 2,400 oysters served in two hours!
The winning oyster was the breaded deep fried oyster made by Denise Hollinger.
Saturday and Sunday featured seafood competitions and demonstrations with mussels, oysters, salmon, scallops, halibut and prawns.
For the first time this year there was a Mystery Box Challenge. The competitors had one hour to prepare a meal from secret ingredients - just like Chopped on the Food Network.
The competitors were certainly challenged as their ingredients included cuttle fish, tofu fettucini noodles, cactus, beer cheese, and an absolutely bizarre fruit called granadilla which, on the inside, looks like brains in jelly.
Hollinger was again the winner, one of her three first-place finishes. The competitions which were judged by local professionals from the food industry.
Here are all the winners:
Salmon Appetizer: 1st James Hastings, 2nd Laura Grannery, 3rd Linda Writchson, 4th Hollinger.
Oyster Appetizer: 1st Hollinger, 2nd Hastings, 3rd Writchson, 4th Grannery.
Halibut Appetizer: 1st Hastings, 2nd Catherine Devine, 3rd Grannery, 4th Writchson.
Tuna Appetizer: 1st Nathan Inglis, 2nd Hollinger, 3rd Writchson, 4th Hastings
Mystery Box Challenge: 1st Hollinger, Grannery, 3rd Hastings, 4th Writchson
Prawn Appetizer: 1st Hollinger, 2nd Hastings, 3rd Grannery, 4th Inglis.
Salmon Entree: 1st Inglis, 2nd Hollinger, 3rd Hastings, 4th Grannery.
Mussels: 1st Grannery, 2nd Hollinger, 3rd Writchson.