WV Recipe Challenge names 2009 winners!
         
The fourth annual West Virginia Recipe Challenge, created by West Virginia State University Extension Service, was held at the 2009 State Fair of West Virginia in Lewisburg in August.  Participants competed for a chance to take their home-cooked products to the market. 

Steve Saffel of Marlinton took top prize in the New Entrepreneur category with his homemade cheddar cheese.  His prize package is valued at over $10,000 and includes small business training, product ingredients, nutrition panel analysis, labeling, marketing assistance, and more. 

Saffel’s product is the result of simply having too much of a good thing.  “We had too much milk from the family cow,” he says.  “So we decided to try making cheese with the extra milk and thought it made a wonderful product.”

Kathy Hamrick of Morgantown won the Existing Entrepreneur category with her entry, Ms. Molly’s Appalachian Salsa, a prize valued at over $2,000.  Kathy is owner of Good Golly Ms. Molly’s LLC.  The salsa is a blend of hominy, black-eyed peas, fresh green onions, jalapenos, garlic, and tomatoes.  As Kathy says, “You have never tasted anything like it!”

The daylong event also featured activities such as a cook-off between two professional chefs, Lisa Carter from The Bakery and Brian Wallace from the Greenbrier, both given a box of surprise ingredients and asked to create a dish; a cooking demonstration from a local pastry chef; and samplings from last year’s Recipe Challenge winners: Cindy Glendenning of Fairmont with her olive tapenade and Jim Gilbert of Summersville with his Bluegrass Gourmet Barbeque Sauce.

Taking second place in the New Entrepreneur category was Tony Reichert of Pineville with German Spaghetti and Meatballs.  Lisa Rezzonica of Talcott won third place with her Zucchini Cobbler.

Angie Cowger of Webster Springs, whose entry was Custard Stand Tasty Bowl Chili, took second place in the Existing Business category; Phillip Bricker of Charleston took third with his gourmet ice creams and sorbets.

Past winners of the West Virginia Recipe Challenge include Frank Goines, owner of Frank’s Batter Up, which produces a corn dog batter called Ms. Mary’s Corn Dog Kit; Darrell Vowell, who has launched a successful line of barbeque sauce under the Cowboy Cook’n Co. name as well as opening a restaurant in Wayne, WV; and Bricker, whose gourmet ice cream and sorbet company – The Wooden Spoon Appalachian Creamery – is making the rounds at fairs and festivals and has opened a production facility in Charleston. 

West Virginia State University Extension Service partners with the West Virginia Department of Agriculture, Tamarack, Opening Soon Inc., and the State Fair of West Virginia to host the event.