After defeating three other contestants in a 60-minute recipe cook-off the previous week, Debbie McDermott of Thousand Oaks, California and Wendy Taber of Ventura, California face off against one another at the 25th California Strawberry Festival. McDermott’s entry is a strawberry tiramisu while Taber offers a strawberry gazpacho salad. At stake, a four day cruise package, but also the right to claim the title of strawberry maven for a year.
Festivalgoers looking for a respite from the stifling heat converge at Strawberry Promenade, the heart of the festival’s food corridor. Outside, the energetic crowds pack up flats of freshly picked camarosa strawberries from local growers such as Glen Hasegawa’s Isla Vista Farms. Inside, the competitors jest with the crowd as they answer questions and muse between chopping, slicing, mixing and smearing.
“I was just looking to do something different,” explains McDermott.
“To get out of my box.”
With support from an energetic group of family and friends, she prepares a dish perfect for the record temperatures on this May weekend. Her strawberry tiramisu takes a slight twist on the Italian classic, incorporating strawberries from Oxnard’s local fields.
As the strawberries macerate in a raspberry liquor reduction, she mixes cream cheese and mascarpone cheese with some powdered sugar. Adding that the recipe is flexible to any berry or sturdy fruit, she carefully dips each of her ladyfinger cookies in the sweet reduction, while offering Su-Lin Rubalcava, the competition emcee, a preview to the finished dessert.
Rubalcava’s facial surrender to the sweet ladyfingers bodes well for McDermott, but she fastidiously maintains a clean station while she constructs what she calls “sweet, strawberry lasagna.”
Taber’s entry is a different, but equally cooling, strawberry gazpacho salad with tangy lime vinaigrette. To tame her nerves, she keeps her head down as she chops strawberries, cucumbers, mangoes and sweet mini peppers.
“It’s a little nerve racking being up here,” she admits.
Nevertheless, she takes the attention in stride and playfully jokes with the crowd, at one point shooting a glare to her husband when Rubalcava polls the crowd for their favorite.
The winner instantly gains wide renown as a strawberry force because no region in the country is more discerning when it comes to strawberries. California produces 88% of the country’s strawberries and Oxnard is the state’s strawberry capital.
The four-judge panel evaluates each dish for taste, freshness, flavor, texture, ease of preparation, presentation and creative use of strawberries. Among the judges are life long Oxnard residents that do not know a world without strawberry shortcake or roadside berry stands.
Both dishes feature the versatility and simplicity of fresh strawberries. Strawberries are suitable for sweet and savory flavors. Additionally, aside from the liquor reduction McDermott uses to macerate her strawberries and ladyfingers, neither recipe requires an oven or stove, just quality ingredients and some patient preparation.
By the time the tiramisu is ready for a quick 10-minute chill in the refrigerator, Taber is still calmly chopping and adding her raw vegetables into her large mixing bowl. Inside, a full palette of colors gives off a vibrant radiance.
Camera totting fans and media crowd the competitors’ workstations to snap tight shots of their creations. The creamy tiramisu fortified by a surrounding wall of ladyfingers resemble the Italian Medieval cities on the outskirts of Florence.
“I find it so funny that people are taking pictures of my dish,” jokes McDermott.
She describes her dish as 12 years in the making. After years of thinking about competing, she finally decided to enter this dish. Still humble, she sees the dish as just another in her rotating repertoire, so it amuses her to see strangers fussing over the simple dish.
As she wipes her work area of any excess mascarpone or powdered sugar, Taber lines her yellow-orange square dishes for presentation. Taking a page from the famed chefs that walk into Kitchen Stadium, she spends the final moments of competition attending to her plating with the same detail and precision as with the dish itself. Lining martini glasses with a piece of Bibb lettuce and a full strawberry, she lays out a floral arrangement on her serving dishes. She carefully spoons her salad into the martini glasses, giving the dish color and height.
Enthused judges welcome their opportunity to taste after eagerly waiting for nearly one hour. Taber breathes a sigh of relief as the last of her judges’ plates makes it to the their table. McDermott, though, is dissatisfied with how the tiramisu set in the refrigerator. The outdoor heat and the trip from the refrigerator to the judges’ table take its toll on the tiramisu. Hesitating with the knife on her initial slice, she settles on four wedges suitable for judging, though each slice looks deflated.
Judges ask if there can be a tie since they have trouble deciding between the dishes.
“I think the problem we have is that they are so different,” one of the judges explains. He adds it would be easier to compare two similar dishes.
Another judge only asks if she could finish both dishes.
“Presentation on one of them was fabulous. The other one just struck a chord with growing up in Oxnard. And just very good old fashion strawberry shortcake,” said another judge.
“How one can choose between the two is beyond me. They are night and day,” says a member of the audience.
As both women wait for the results, Rubalcava does her best to add to the suspense with a drawn out reveal of the runner up. As she goes through the prize package that includes family tickets to Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm and the Los Angeles Zoo, McDermott turns to Taber.
“I think you won since she was looking at me when she said that,” she says.
Taber comes away with a narrow three-point victory and wins the cruise to Catalina and Encinitas courtesy of Shell Vacations. Nevertheless, the real winner on this day is the strawberry. Though wonderful eaten raw, the two recipes showcase the strawberry’s versatility. As a dessert, it adds a sweet and tart crispness that is light and refreshing. In a salad, it adds a sweet, juicy crunch to complement spicy peppers and mild cucumbers. Full of nutrients such as vitamin C, folate and fiber, they are a simple way to add something healthy to the plate.
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