Sun Valley Food and Wine Celebration to Feature Four Cutting Edge Chefs

BY KAREN BOSSICK

Four award-winning chefs will take part in the Sun Valley Culinary Institute’s inaugural Sun Valley Food & Wine Celebration March 1-4.

The festival is designed to raise funds to support the Culinary Institute’s student training program.

The chefs are:

• Jonathon Sawyer, James Beard Award winner, Great Lakes. Sawyer began his culinary career at The Biltmore Hotel in Miami before going to New York where he worked alongside Charlie Palmer at Kitchen 22 and Michael Symon at Parea.

  After earning the Rising Star Chef award in Cleveland he opened his flagship restaurant The Greenhouse Tavern, a French and seasonally inspired gastropub in Cleveland. Now in Chicago, he has written two cookbooks: “House of Sour: the Power of Vinegar” and “Noodle Kids.”

• Ethan Stowell, “Food & Wine” Best New Chef All-Star. Stowell is the founder of Ethan Stowell Restaurants in Seattle. His restaurants include Tavolata, How to Cook a Wolf, Cortina, Staple & Fancy Mercantile, Ballard Pizza Company, Rione XIII, Mkt., Red Cow, Frelard Pizza Company, Tavolata Capitol Hill, Wolf and Goldfinch Tavern in the Four Seasons Hotel Seattle. He also has consulted with the Seattle Mariners on their ballgame food and authored “New Italian Kitchen.”

  Brittany Rescigno, “Chopped Champion” and Beat Bobby Flay. Rescigno grew up in her grandparent’s restaurant, went on to graduate from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. and took down Bobby Flay. She is now running a pop-up restaurant in New Jersey called Crow that focuses on local sustainable products. She also co-owns Pastation, a small handmade pasta and sauce company.

• Jason Wilson, James Beard Award winner, Pacific Northwest. Wilson’s restaurant, The Lakehouse, is a Northwest farmhouse concept in Bellevue, Wash. He also has been involved with the modern speakeasy-inspired Civility & Unrest, Cedar + Elm restaurant at The Lodge at St. Edward State Park, Crush and as product developer for Coffee Flour, touted as a global superfood.

  “We’re delighted and thrilled to launch this event with these incredible and talented chefs who are the cutting edge of today’s culinary arts world,” said the Culinary Institute’s Executive Director Karl Uri. “This event would not be possible without the support of donors and sponsors, who are contributing to this celebration and the new avenues and possibilities that the Institute offers SVCI students and the Wood River Valley community for many decades to come.”

• The Festival will kick off with an opening VIP reception from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 1, that will include heavy appetizers created by SVCI’s new Culinary Director Andy Floyd with a selection of wines from Rodney Strong and beer provided by the Warfield Distillery & Brewery. The reception will be held at the Sun Valley Culinary Institute in Ketchum.
• Guest chefs will prepare a celebratory gala dinner at Sun Valley’s Trail Creek Cabin at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 2, that will include an appetizer of Hamachi and duck pasta entrée served up by Sawyer and freshly shucked oysters in sabayon with sea beans and caviar and meatballs and sugo in creamy polenta served up by Rescigno.

  Wilson will present smoked King salmon with maple-cured roe topped with chive crème fraiche and braised Creekstone beef short ribs with Jasper Hill cheddar grits with mushroom garum and kale.

• On Friday, March 3, the guest chefs will present two cooking classes at the Institute in Ketchum. The first will be presented by Stowell and Wilson from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The second will be presented by Sawyer and Rescigno from 2 to 4 p.m.
• On Saturday, March 4, an Apres Ski Apple’s Warm Springs community party with DJ Alex will be held from 1 to 4 p.m., giving people an opportunity to mingle with the chefs.

The Festival will close that evening on March 4 with a VIP reception from 5 to 7 p.m.at the Warfield Distillery & Brewery. It will include charcuterie boards with house-made game sausages and assorted flatbreads, along with smoked trout rillettes, sliced Kobe beef and figs and Cambozola crostini.

Warfield’s mixologist Jordan Koch will mix special cocktails featuring Warfield spirits and guests will be offered guided tours and tastings.

VIP passes are now available; individual event tickets will be available in mid-February. To learn more, visit https://sunvalleyculinary.org.