It seems like yesterday, but it was more than 30 years ago that I was on a group trip to Washington state when the organizers of this trip came up with a brilliant idea: to involve all of us in a cooking contest using fresh salmon. The thought behind this, as we gathered in a large room, was that it would be a good bonding exercise, giving us travel writers a chance to get to know each other.
So let me set the stage:
There were six of us, and each of us was given a couple of salmon fillets and access to a table of spices and other ingredients. It was very much like the chef competitions at Chattanooga Market. I can’t imagine how chefs can work under pressure, because I certainly can’t, but then again, I’m not a chef, as was clearly defined by the fact that I was crazily running back and forth — and silently wailing that I couldn’t think under that kind of pressure, flapping around like a fish out of water.
I remember taking the easy route, stirring up a bowl of teriyaki sauce, cooking the salmon, and brushing it over the fillets as they cooked. Needless to say, it wasn’t a very creative attempt at culinary greatness, and I didn’t win the competition.
But there was one among us who was apparently quite good at cooking under pressure, having come from a family in the restaurant business. She won a small trophy with a brass fish attached to its top and also shared the recipe with us writers when she got home to determine the exact measurements and ingredients she used.