Seafood, sausage and saffron

Paella cook-off brings flavorful food, with opportunities for youth

The smell of seafood, sausage and saffron filled the air at medley. restaurant in El Prado Sunday evening (Sept. 18) for the 13th Great Chefs of Taos Paella Cookoff, which returned this year after a two-year hiatus.

The weather was nearly perfect for the two-hour event, which brought together Taos-area chefs and home-cooks to help raise money for the Great Chefs of Taos — the nonprofit sponsor of the event — and the Taos High School Culinary Arts Program.

Eight different paellas were available for guests to try. Local chefs, either representing restaurants or appearing individually, provided a range of different takes on the traditional Spanish dish — recognizable for its large, circular pan (called a paella) and the inclusion of cooked rice with meat and seafood, depending on the specific style. Southwestern versions of the dish tend to include green chile, chorizo, sausage, chicken or other meats.

Great Chefs of Taos Board President John Rush said the cook-off started in 2008. He said the competition is all about raising money to help foster the growth of future chefs from the region through the

Taos High School Culinary Arts Program. The event helps provide funding for student chefs to participate in national competitions. “Whenever they need money for airline tickets, hotels — whenever they’re traveling to competitions — we will take care of all of that,” Rush explained.

Rush chose paella as the competition dish because of its complex yet familiar style. “It has a little bit of the New Mexican flair to it,” he said. “I don’t think a green chile cheeseburger cook-off would have been quite as fun. There’s a lot of cheffing going on in making paella — there really is. It’s not something that’s very simple to make, and you have to really pay attention. So I like that, you know, it’s something to work with.”

Chef Adam Medina is the head of Taos High School’s Culinary Arts Program. He said the event is a great way for students to learn about the profession, competition cooking and to build on the already-strong enthusiasm the students have for making food.

“I’m only allowed to have 18 kids per class period, so there’s always a waitlist for my class,” Medina said, noting the list is

between 120 and 130 students long.

Medina was a participant in the program when he was a student at Taos High School. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, he chose to come back to his hometown to help run his family’s restaurant: The Ranchos Plaza Grill. He said the program helps prepare students for a culinary future through friendly competition that pushes them to sharpen their skills.

“We do events anywhere — from birthday parties, to the paella cook-off, to weddings. Actually, next week, we have a wedding booked,” Medina said.

Participants in the program created two of the eight paella dishes at the competition: one with chicken, and another one that was vegetarian.

Taos High Junior Isaiah Gonzales described his team’s dish: “Our main protein was chicken, but we didn’t want the main focus to be the chicken. We wanted to have it shine from other dishes, because we didn’t want it to be like something really exotic, we wanted to stay simple but be different,” he said.

Gonzales said the culinary arts

program has been a highlight.

“When we came back [after COVID], I really enjoyed it. There’s different cultural dishes. Like last year, our menu was with the Asian concept, and this year, I think we’re doing more Indian. It really expands your horizons on different cultural foods,” he said.

Marisol Martinez, who was cooking alongside Gonzales, said the program has helped her realize her passion. “I’d eventually like to pursue cooking as a career,” she said.

Taos-area chefs like Ky Quintanilla (of the former Kyote Club, Shed Rio, and now Sol Food) Gabe Farkash (formerly with Sabroso and the Bavarian) and Wilks Medley (owner of medley. restaurant) all showed up to compete in the cook-off.

Participants voted for the best paella by dropping a marble in the bucket of their favorite chef. At the end of the event, Farkash won second place in the “people’s choice” judging category for a Catalan paella rendition featuring muscles, shrimp and green chile. Hondo Restaurant’s Shane Alexander brought home first place for his rabbit, snail and blood sausage paella.

Regardless of the local love for the longtime area chefs, it was former restaurateurs that took home first and second place in the “judge’s choice” category, judged by the Great Chefs of Taos’ seven-person board. Greg Payton and Diane Enright took home second place for their traditional Valencia-style paella with chicken, chorizo, shrimp and mussels, while former personal chef Steven Critcher won first place with his paella including Spanish chorizo, Italian pancetta, green olives, roasted red pepper and a stock infused with Chinese smoked tea “for that smokey flavor,” he said.

“There’s a lot of alchemy involved,” said Critcher of paella. “The last five minutes is a big deal. You really have to watch it and listen to it and smell it, so it’s a lot of fun!” Critcher also acknowledged his Taos High School Culinary Art Program Assistant Santiago Tafoya.

“This is like the best-smelling acre in the whole town right now,” Critcher said as the competition wrapped up.

Next on the agenda for the Great Chefs of Taos is the Taco cook-off at next year’s Taos Lilac Festival, scheduled for May, 2023.