"The Bite" Dishes Up Good Flavors, Good Will from Around the State
An unrivaled celebration of Oregon’s good taste, The Bite of Oregon, presented by the Oregon Restaurant Association, filled Tom McCall Waterfront Park with more than 100,000 satisfied visitors August 11 - 13.
A fundraiser for Special Olympics Oregon, the event was a showcase of Oregon restaurant and beverage faire from every region of the state. “The Bite is an ideal way to illustrate that restaurants are cornerstones of communities across the state,” said ORA past board chair Connie Hunt during a KPTV interview. “We’re in literally every community. When we can coordinate our efforts like this, it helps more people discover the tremendous culinary diversity Oregon has to offer.”
The event was also an opportunity to highlight the strong philanthropic spirit among restaurants. Nine out of ten restaurants are engaged in some type of charitable activity. In addition to the generosity of participants, the Oregon Restaurant Association and SYSCO Food Services of Portland recognized the six state winners of the 2006 Governor’s Community Service Award for Restaurants on Saturday of the event.
The winners of the 2006 Governor’s Community Service Award for Restaurants are:
- Hole in the Wall Barbecue, Eugene
- Tin Shed Garden Café, Portland
- Smoky Hearth Pizza Company, Sandy
- Shari's Restaurants, Beaverton
- McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurants, Portland
- Mo's Restaurants, Newport.
The top two nominees—Tin Shed Garden Café and Mo’s Restaurants—will receive a $500 gift to the charity of their choice and will represent Oregon to compete for the national Restaurant Neighbor Award, which recognizes outstanding programs in local communities across the country.
On Sunday, four student teams competed in the Junior Iron Chef event. This daring display of culinary prowess paired the top four teams from the April ProStart High School Culinary Championships, sponsored by the Oregon Restaurant Association Education Foundation. Each team had just 15 minutes to set up its mise en place (pantry set-up) and then 45 minutes to create an entrée using a "mystery protein."
McKay High School reigned supreme as they dazzled the judges in the final round with a pan-seared pork tenderloin drizzled with a Dijon cream sauce accompanied by a shitake-mushroom couscous cake and a leek-tied carrot bundle.
The students and this splashy competition captivated Bite audiences. Spectators, numbering in the hundreds, with standing room only, packed each of the three rounds of competition. “Chefs on their day off were coming up to us afterwards asking to get involved, members of the public wanted to know where they could send their kid to get into ProStart and other industry members volunteered to come and get involved in schools,” recalled Dawn Tryon, director of the ProStart program. “This event was a resounding success.”
