Despite the rain, a large group of barbecue fans showed up for the Skewer for a Cure, Grill King competition last night at JL’s Home Hardware.
The goal of the event was to celebrate the culinary skills of seven local chefs and to raise money and awareness for prostate cancer research and prevention.
Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer affecting men. It is estimated that one in eight Canadian men will be diagnosed with the disease in their lifetime. If detected early the survival rate can be as high as 90 per cent.
“Last year we did the breast cancer fundraiser for the ladies,” said JL’s Home Hardware founder J.L. Belisle. “We thought we would do something for the men to even up the score.”
Chef’s representing seven local restaurants and stores set up barbecues and makeshift kitchens in a row of tents located in the store’s parking lot.
The chefs included Brian Schmeler from Valeriote’s Market, Scott Day from State and Main, Brian Baxendale from Milestones, Jarod Dalley from The Keg, Brent Conlin from Fifty West at the Delta Hotel, Brodie Sorbara from Envers, and Samual Zajdlik from Bite Guelph.
“It was great to see how serious the restaurants took the challenge,” said store owner and manager Andre Belisle. “It was like we were shooting a Master Chef TV show in JL’s parking lot.”
Contestants were judged on four criteria; taste, presentation, creativity and the use of a secret ingredient that wasn’t revealed to them until the competition began.
“In this kind of competition, the use of that secret ingredient is really important,” said judge Emily Richards. “So we are going to see if we can taste that secret ingredient and how it was used. Hopefully it will lead to some creativity.”
Richards is one of Guelph’s own celebrity chefs and has appeared on the Canadian Living Test Kitchen and the Food Network.
“My father is a prostate cancer survivor so this cause is very personal for me,” she said. “This is a great event to hold just before Fathers’ Day.”
Fellow judge, Burlington’s Celebrity Chef, Michael Benninger, also has a personal connection to cancer having lost his father to the disease.
“Prostate cancer is a men’s cancer so, anything to raise awareness,” said Benninger.
Judge Gloria Kovach is well known in the community as a former city councilor and Federal Conservative Party candidate but she is also a certified pastry chef and professional chocolatier.
“This is such a great cause so I didn’t think twice when they asked me to judge,” said Kovach.
The fourth judge Lisa Richards, radio host from Magic FM, was also MC for the event.
“Everyone was given a basket of five items and they didn’t tell the chefs what would be in the basket,” she said.
The items were pork, beets, honey, rutabagas and the secret ingredient, apricot baby food. Anticipation was high as each contestant served their creations to the hungry judges.
It was a difficult decision.
“When we added up the scores it was so close we had to do a recount,” said Kovach.
The winner was Brian Schmeler from Valeriote’s Market for his pork shish kabob.
“It was a tough competition, said Schmeler. “These are all good, creative chefs.”
The second place award went to Scott Day from State and Main for his jerk pork taco.
