Putting the best plate forward important at culinary event

MOSES LAKE — The Samaritan Healthcare Foundation didn’t call their fundraiser Bourbon & Bowties on a whim — it was all in on black tie, sparkly dresses, all that. As for the food, well, there was a contest.

A contest at a high-end event. For the restaurants and chefs, that probably means thinking about what to serve, how to present, how to make their dish stand out.

It might even mean stepping outside the comfort zone.

Nah. There’s no such thing as a comfort zone. At least that was how Katey Haughton, front house manager at the Porterhouse Steakhouse, saw it.

“Our executive chef is pretty comfortable all across the board,” Haughton said.

The fundraiser attracted 10 restaurants and the culinary arts students from Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center.

Gretchen Youngren, director of development and communications at Samaritan Healthcare, said the restaurants donated the food, their time, booth decorations - their entire setup.

“We’re just really grateful to these restaurant participants. Especially after two years of (operating restrictions),” Youngren said.

The first Bourbon & Bowties event was held in 2019; the 2020 event was moved to 2021, which then was canceled. Youngren said it was a big ask, trying to get the restaurants to come back.

“When we said, ‘You know, would you consider it?’ Everyone jumped all in and said, ‘We’re in. Exclamation point, we’re in,” Youngren said.

Lindsey Crothers, marketing coordinator for Michael’s on the Lake, Michael’s Bistro and Rock Top Burgers and Brew, said the menus required some thought.

“We kind of try to go for the show-stopping,” Crothers said. “Not an everyday item, just something that’s fun and different.”

The chefs opted for entrees for two of the company’s three restaurants.

“(Rock Top) is a fried pork belly tossed on a bourbon glaze sauce served over a pineapple pico slaw,” Crothers said. “Michael’s on the Lake is a marinated tri-tip on a bacon jam crostini, and then glazed with Gorgonzola sauce. And the Bistro has boozy s’mores cupcakes.”

Porterhouse executive chef Richard Paulk wanted to stay true to the restaurant’s strengths.

“We’re meat and potatoes,” Paulk said. “The best thing we do is steak. We thought we’re not going to try to do some sort of fish, or seafood or chicken, we’re going to stick with beef.”

But not just any steak.

“We went with the tri-tip,” Paulk said. “Marinated tri-tip, and then slow smoked. We marinated it for 48 hours and smoked it for three hours.

“Like I said, we’re meat and potatoes. So we put a little twist and a flip on it with some savory sweet potatoes. Grilled asparagus and it also has a Washington apple chutney,” Paulk said.

Paulk grew up in the restaurant business.

“My grandparents owned the Taco Shop in Moses Lake for over 40 years, and it’s still in the family,” he said. “So that was my first job when I was 16. I’ve worked different restaurants here in town for over 20 years.”

Dezmon Campos is the executive chef for Tendrils restaurants and Sage Cliff Pizza at the Sage Cliff Resort near Quincy. He said he tried to choose something relatively easy, although his definition of easy might not be for everybody.

He chose braised pork belly on a bed of greens.

“It took 10 days to prepare,” he said. “I cure it for 10 days; after five days I rotate everything. I pretty much turn the pork belly into bacon first before I braise it.”

Campos is a Moses Lake native who got his start at Rock Top, then went to culinary school at the Oregon Culinary Institute in Portland. He always intended to come back home, he said.

“I love this. I knew when I was in Portland I wanted to bring everything I learned back home,” he said.

His training introduced him to a lot of different styles, and he tries to use them all, he said.

“When somebody asks me what my specialty is, I don’t really know how to answer that one because I do so many different things. I don’t ever get stuck on just one thing,” he said.

Enrique Garcia, owner and chef at Tacos El Rey, chose tacos el pastor con pico de gallo.

“We tweaked it a little bit,” he said.

But he works to serve high quality food, no matter the venue, he said.

The students from the Columbia Basin Techinical Skills Center opted for desserts. Culinary instructor Nathan Bathurst ran down the menu.

“We’re serving a trio of tartlets, a lemon curd, a chocolate ganache, and a hibiscus and vanilla poached pear with a mascarpone cheese cream,” Bathurst said.

Bathurst said Bourbon and Bowties presented a good learning opportunity.

“I wanted to push them, but I wanted them to be able to accomplish it, too,” he said.

Getting it right involved about a week of practice.

“We made everything in a smaller batch beforehand, and then we made what we actually brought tonight on a much bigger scale,” said culinary student Grace Williams.

Bathurst said the students made about 1,260 total desserts.

Cow Path Bakery owner Janice Baginski said Bourbon & Bowties was something new.

“I’ve never done a big event like this,” she said.

She chose to go with the event theme.

“A chocolate cupcake with brown butter whiskey frosting,” she said. “We’ve done it at the shop and it’s really popular. We normally do it on a brownie, but I really love our chocolate cake. So we are offering a chocolate cupcake. We also are doing limoncello tartlet, and also did a pecan bourbon cheesecake.”

Baginski started a catering business in early 2020, just before the pandemic, then built a summer stand at her home near Othello. She started opening in pop-up locations when summer ended, and built her business during the pandemic. She will be opening her shop in downtown Othello Friday.

Cheryl Schweizer may be reached at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.