Pierpont Culinary Announces Chef to Lead 2009 Cast Iron Cook-Off

Pierpont Culinary announced today, Chef Caleb Taylor (a 2007 graduate of Pierpont's Culinary program), apprentice chef at The Greenbrier, will be leading the Cast Iron Competition team in Charleston, WV January 2009.

"Chef Taylor is a shining example of the potential of our graduates," said Chef Brian Floyd. "He lead our team to very competitive finish in the 2008 competition, and we cannot think of a better person to represent our institution."

Taylor, with his sous chef, will lead a team of eight amateur cooks as they prepare a four-course meal utilizing some of West Virginia's best ingredients. Chefs from around the state will vie for prizes such as: Best use of WV Ingredients, Most Creative use of Cast Iron, and of course, the Grand Champion's Skillet.

"The Cast Iron Cook-Off is one of the state's premier culinary events. We are particularly proud that some of the event's proceeds are used to help sponsor scholarships." Floyd said. "We feel fortunate and honored to be one of the teams chosen to compete." The 2009 Cast Iron Cook-Off will be held at the Charleston Marriott Town-Center January 23rd-25th.

Edible Allegheny Magazine

The latest issue of Edible Allegheny (www.edibleallegheny.com) is out. The folks in Western PA are really doing things right when it comes to sustainable agriculture. EA highlights ALL of the things we are trying to do in WV - farmers markets, farm to chef connections, farm to restaurant, year round markets, etc etc. The Edible series of magazines (www.ediblenation.com) now covers nearly 50 areas of the country. Based on the success of EA, perhaps a WV publisher would be interested in creating an Edible Appalachia magazine. That would be great. Anyone involved in sustainable ag in WV should subscribe to Edible Allegheny. I've got the Romney Farmers Market (www.romneyfarmersmarket.com) listed in their directory. When I spoke to them a few months ago, they said they are more than happy to cover WV based farms and activities. The thought occurs that we need to get the EA staff involved in the Cast Iron Event. I'm sure they would write a great article to promote the event as well as a followup to summarize the event. The CIC is exactly the type of event that they like to focus on. The POC at EA is Victoria Bradley, Executive Editor, 412-431-7888.

Something New

Hello everyone. Today we begin something new. This blog is intended for participants and others interested in the annual West Virginia Cast Iron Cookoff (CIC) which is held each year in late in January. The CIC is a showcase for West Virginia grown foods and the format is that of a chef's or team competition. The end result is the preparation of incredible dishes and meals which are served to the CIC judges. Its a way for WV producers to meet and collaborate with chefs and users of their farm products. As you can well imagine, many months of preparation and planning goes into an event such as this. This blog will serve as a journal of that planning and preparation and will afford us all an opportunity to communicate and collaborate about the event as well as to share any relevant information. You'd be encouraged to use a RSS or News Reader to subscribe to the blog so that you can be automatically notified when new information or a new article has been posted. Bloglines, Google Reader, or My Yahoo are all examples of RSS readers. They bring updates to you, as opposed to the reader having to go and look for them. Future posts will describe the event and all details related to the CIC. It will all come together in the CIC blog and will be available for you to reference at any time. So let's begin.