After weeks of foraging, hunting and clamming, on Sunday Vineyard chefs from both amateur and professional ranks made good on their charge to serve up the wildest food the Vineyard has to offer.
In the end Hal Ryerson of Détente Restaurant took top prize for an offering of wild bay scallops with wild grape leaf dolmas, a Chilmark parsnip puree, a Tiasquam orchard apple, Quitsa seabean and Chilmark arugula salad finished with an autumn olive reduction and wild baby sorrel, in a dish that proved local ingredients coul d produce world-class cuisine — and that earned Mr. Ryerson the grand prize of a cruise to Nantucket on the luxury yacht Keldi.
The event was emceed by chef Sean Dailey of Eat Your Heart Out catering of Falmouth, who offered his own brand of offbeat humor to the proceedings.
“There’s a llama missing from Ernie Boch’s lawn,” he announced. “I’m going to need to see the chefs at the front.”
Instead it seemed llama was just about the only animal not on offer at the Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club on Sunday. The challenge was wild indeed, with offerings ranging from Maine black bear (caught by an Edgartown resident who was up north during Hurricane Irene) to grasshoppers sautéed in garlic and olive oil. The bugs were caught by Lila Fischer and Rachel Curtin at Quansoo who found themselves unfamiliar with insect butchery.
“It was trial and error, it was actually kind of sad,” said Ms. Fischer. “First Rachel tried to stab them in the heart with a pin but that didn’t work, then in the brain and that didn’t work.”
The grasshoppers, mercifully, were boiled in the end.
“Insects are eaten all over the world; it’s only here we’re squeamish,” challenge organizer and private Vineyard chef Bill Manson said at the judging table as he enthusiastically bit into the head of a grasshopper. “I don’t have a problem eating them at all.”
About the bear, Mr. Manson turned to Détente chef Kevin Crowell after a bite and remarked, “It’s very subtle!”
And then there’s Ben Cabot’s story, which Mr. Manson said “embodied the spirit” of the competition.
Mr. Cabot had already finished compiling his other ingredients — he had caught his bluefish at Quick’s Hole, shot a deer with bow and arrow the previous season near his house in West Tisbury, harvested watercress and nasturtiums with his daughter Violet and gathered honey raised by his uncle Andy on Middle Road. He only needed wild grapes for a wild grape sauce to accompany his venison. Mr. Cabot searched the Vineyard far and wide until providence intervened in the form of vines around a tree on North Road.
“It just so happens that tree was across the street from the house of Basil Welch,” Mr. Cabot explained to the judges. “Basil was a friend and a wealth of knowledge on anything from fishing and hunting, to back roads and hidden spots, as well as countless stories of the adventures he had on Martha’s Vineyard. I would certainly have consulted with him about this challenge, as well as any other questions about fishing, hunting and gathering. Basil passed away about a month ago and I will be wearing a red derby hat in his honor. Basil was well known for his red baseball hat, and I wish to thank him for helping me find my grapes to go with the rest of this meal.”
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