Rubbing elbows with the nation’s best chefs

This was not the threesome’s first time competing together; they also qualified for and competed in the 2019 World Food Championship in Dallas, when Tony was only 8. With the COVID-19 pandemic canceling all events in 2020, Rose had to wait until 2021 to compete again, though Tony and Callahan couldn’t join him. This year, after placing in a qualifying round in Sourthern California the trio was reunited, and the chemistry was as good as ever, they said.

“It was a lot of fun,” Callahan said. “It’s a learning experience, and there’s nothing cooler than being able to compete against the best chefs in the world – and they truly are the best in the world that come to this competition.”

In the past, Rose competed in the “chef” category. This year, that category was eliminated, so he chose seafood. While in Dallas, he took Tony to the aquarium, where he was inspired to create something whimsical.

“We had this ‘under the water’ theme, I wanted it to be fairy tale-like, and that’s how the dish turned out,” Rose said. “I wanted to create something that’s never been done before, like creating a lobster snow, and everyone was like ‘what’ because that had never been done before.”

The team cooked twice for the competition, and once for a special sponsor dinner at the end.

For his second competition dish, Rose reimagined Coquille St. Jacques as an under-the-sea adventure. He created a scallop and mushroom puff pastry, bathed in a caviar cream sauce and gruyere, and dusted with lobster snow, sitting next to a whipped king salmon caviar-filled macaroon topped with lemon pearls.

“I called this ‘Shells and Caviar,’” he said. “It’s a recipe that’s almost 1,000 years old and I wanted to modernize it and make it playful. And the scallop comes from the shell and it’s like a scallop dish and it’s all about the sauce. But my modern take was the caviar. I turned it into a cupcake almost, and they were blown away with it.”

Callahan has some experience with cooking, and he creates a variety of distinct flavors in his ice creams. He served as Rose’s sous chef, trusting the creative process, saying he keeps a cool head under the pressure of the competition. He also used his experience in computer animation to create storyboards of the dishes so judges and spectators would have something to look at, rather than interrupting the chefs.

One important thing he did to prepare for this year’s competition was to become an Execution, Appearance, Taste Certified Judge.

“One of the things you have to do is describe your dish, provide your recipe and then you get an execution score based on what you described,” Callahan said. “I wanted to know what the judges were looking for, so I got certified to be a judge so I could know what is important and keep us in line to judge ourselves the way the judges judge.”

The team’s 10th-place finish qualified them to return next year, and they plan to head back to Dallas for the 2023 World Food championship.

“It’s a ton of fun and I can’t wait to do it again,” Callahan said. “Those people become like family. You see the same competitors and get a sense of who they are and their passion and it’s just a great community of people who all just love food and creating. You go wanting to win, but you win just by going.”

Vin Alegro is at 1520 Discovery Bay Blvd., Suite 300. For more information, call 925-395-4700 or visit www.vin-alegro.business.site/.

Callahan’s Coffee and Cones is at 1555 Riverlake Rd., Suite A. For more information, call 925-420-6422 or visit www.callahanscc.com.