​Food judging is both filling and fulfilling

By Rick Gion

rickgion@gmail.com

As a food enthusiast, there’s nothing better than attending a local event featuring hotdish. And as far as hotdish events go, no place does it better than the fine folks at Brewhalla and Drekker Brewing Company. Fargo’s palace of cool warms up every year to host its annual Fargo Hotdish Festival.

The Fargo Hotdish Festival at Brewhalla is a world-class eating event. I should know, I’ve been a judge for two years in a row now. The event is definitely something to look forward to every February. It hits the spot on a cold winter day when there’s a lack of interesting things to do. Yes, eating hotdish can actually be recreational.

Here’s the filling part; fourteen restaurants entered as contestants this year. As a judge, I can tell you that there wasn’t a bad entry in the bunch. I actually finished eating most of the individual sample cups of grub. It’s a testament to the quality of restaurants around here these days.

I judged this event with Tyler Axness, a popular radio talk show host on KFGO-AM and Jay Ducote, a culinary media personality from Louisiana. Ducote’s work includes multiple appearances on Food Network. Both gentlemen were great to work with. Our job was to judge hotdish for the grand champion and most creative categories. It was tough work, let me tell ya.

This year’s Fargo Hotdish Festival grand champion award went to Wurst Bier Hall in downtown Fargo. The establishment had a top showing for “Grandma Frida’s chicken wild rice tater tot hotdish.” I think the key to this culinary creation was the addition of a freshly made soft pretzel and extra-crispy tater tots. I have heard from a source who dished me a hot tip that the recipe for this hotdish is from Klaus Meyers. Many of us know that he and his brother, Bert, are Fargo food legends.

Winning this award is good news for Wurst. Economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic hit many restaurants hard, especially in the downtown Fargo area. Sebastian and the crew there have been working diligently to get things going again. It does seem to be working. The award serves to give some extra motivation and put some pep in the step.

The most creative hotdish award went to Rosewild at the Jasper Hotel. This year’s offering from Rosewild was pork cheek and parsnip hotdish. It was a serious effort and featured braised pork cheeks, lingonberries, parsnip puree and sweet potatoes. The braised meat was unctuous and all the flavors hit right. The combo was intelligent food work.

Other awards given out at this year’s Hotdish Festival were for best booth and people’s choice. Let me tell ya, some of the booth decorations were very colorful. I was not a part of this portion of the judging; it was left to the 650 ticketholders. The best booth went to 701 Eateries and people’s choice went to Rosewild. Congratulations to the folks at these establishments. Well deserved.

I want to give kudos to all of the restaurants entered in this year’s Fargo Hotdish Festival. Competition was fierce. Another favorite of mine worth mentioning was Nova Eatery with a deluxe bacon chili cheese butter burger hotdish. The crushed dill potato chips on top of this concoction made it supreme. Mezzaluna’s offering was quite good too, with a pierogi hotdish. House of Noods and Buns had a very creative pork egg foo yum hotdish. It was basically a deconstructed egg foo young with a gourmet twist. The entry from 701 Eateries was creative as well, The Mad Hatter’s mushroom marsala hotdish. Chef Avalon from 701 won the grand champion award two years back. She knows what she’s doing.

Food judging is not something new to me. I have been a judge at the Fargo Food Truck Festival every year for a decade. Contests at that event include best of the fest and makin’ bacon.” I was also twice a judge at the Grand Forks Food Truck Festival. The hour drive was worth it both times. I really like a Filipino food truck up there called The Wok.

The fulfilling part of food judging is meeting all of the food creators and purveyors in the region. These folks are genuinely interested in sharing their passion with event attendees. That passion can be contagious. Oftentimes, I’ve thought there should be a category of food judging that reflects the enthusiasm of the particular vendor. Attitude is not everything, but it’s an indication of motivation to make a good product.

This was the seventh annual Fargo Hotdish Festival at Brewhalla. I definitely look forward to attending the eighth. I may or may not be a judge at the next event, but the plan is still to try all the best hotdish offerings Fargo-Moorhead has to offer. It’s a true test in Midwest culinary crafting.