The dish that will be chosen as the signature flavor of this
year
’s Garlic Festival can be relished year-round at a local
restaurant. Each year, hundreds of amateur chefs submit recipes to
the Great Garlic Cook-Off in hopes of having their dish selected as
the winner following a live show judged by professional chefs and
food critics.
The dish that will be chosen as the signature flavor of this year’s Garlic Festival can be relished year-round at a local restaurant.
Each year, hundreds of amateur chefs submit recipes to the Great Garlic Cook-Off in hopes of having their dish selected as the winner following a live show judged by professional chefs and food critics.
Although the recipe is widely distributed after the festival, the food itself is usually savored by only a few.
Now, Mama Mia’s Ristorante Italiano will add this year’s cook-off winner to its menu and make it available to customers until a new dish is chosen at next year’s festival.
“We get a lot of people all across the year, they come to Gilroy and they want to taste the garlic and taste the Garlic Festival food,” said Majid Bahriny, owner of Mama Mia’s.
The president of this year’s garlic festival said Mama Mia’s played an important role in the festival’s signature dish.
“Majid and Mama Mia’s were pretty instrumental as far as helping to fine-tune the penne pasta con pesto recipe,” said Jen Speno, referring to the pesto dish that was revamped last year and is on the restaurant’s regular menu.
“As a matter of fact, we have like five or six different garlic items that are from the Garlic Festival on our menu,” Bahriny said, that includes garlic chicken, garlic scampi, and calamari.
The restaurant earned the right to sell the cook-off winner by making a $5,000 bid to the Garlic Festival Association. The association sent a proposal to all the restaurants in Gilroy, and Mama Mia’s was the first to respond.
Bahriny said the cook-off dish will be sold at all four of his restaurants in Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Felton and Campbell.
The winner will belong to one of eight chefs from across the country who will hit the cook-off at 10am on July 30, the second day of the three-day festival.
