Seafood Throwdown: Whitney Kids and Families Team Up With Artist Collective Spurse and Colors Restaurant for a Fish Cook Off
Jun 14, 2010

On June 5, members of the artist collective, spurse, faced off against Chef Teresa Montano of Colors Restaurant for a Seafood Throwdown at the Union Square Greenmarket Farmers Market. But instead of working with other cooks, Whitney kids and families helped the chefs shop for, prepare, and of course taste the dishes!

The throwdown was organized on the occasion of the Whitney’s Independent Studies Program exhibition at the Kitchen. It is part of spurse’s larger project, which explores the relationships between marine ecosystems, economics, fisheries, and consumers through educational events, interventions, and investigations. Spurse organized the throwdown in collaboration with Niaz Dorry from the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance and Liz Carollo from GrowNYC, along with Whitney Family Programs.

Below watch a slideshow of the event, with photographs by Tiffany Oelfke.

By Sarah Meller, Interpretation and Research Assistant

Kids were separated into two teams, one led by spurse members Petia Morozov and Iain Kerr and the other by Chef Teresa Montano from Colors restaurant.
At the beginning of the competition, the mystery ingredient—sea bass—was revealed by the fisherman himself, Phil Karlin from Long Island.
Teams quickly strategized and the kids were sent off with one hundred dollars to spend at the Greenmarket on all other ingredients they would need to prepare their dishes. Here two kids buy some homemade sausages.
During the twenty-minute shopping spree, kids raced through the stands of the Greenmarket with their families, frantically trying to find flavorful and creative ingredients for their sea bass recipes. They found fresh herbs like cilantro and mint, as well as beautiful vegetable like these radishes.
Each team then had one hour to prepare two dishes and use up every part of the fish they had been given. While the kids got busy measuring, cleaning, and peeling, chefs chopped, grilled, and fried as fast as they could. Here a member of the Colors team peels some carrots.
Kids on the spurse team worked hard to measure and prepare all of the ingredients for their stuffed sea bass.
The teams also had to think quickly when ingredients they hoped to use were not available; they were required to use only in season, locally grown produce. While Chef Teresa originally wanted to use wild cherries in her ceviche, strawberries were in season and the team had to think fast to change up their recipe. Here she fries up some ingredients.
The rules also stipulated that each group must use the entire fish, so the teams got creative and made things like seafood stock that allowed them to use the head and guts. Kids helped to get every last bit out!
Teams worked until the last second, when they had to present their dishes to the judging panel made up of Food Network sous chef, Miriam Garron; Food Network Magazine recipe developer, Claudia Scott; Greenmarket/GrowNYC’s Executive Director, Marcel VanOoyen; and Long Island fisherman, Phil Karlin. Restaurant owner Jimmy Carbone of Jimmy’s No. 43 was the MC of the event.
The scores were tabulated for each team.
Chef Teresa’s team presented a ceviche with mint and strawberries as well as a seafood paella.
The team led by members of spurse made a stuffed sea bass and a salad with edible flowers.
While the judges discussed the food, the public got to try all of the tasty creations.
Finally the verdicts were in, with the Colors Restaurant team winning for taste, and spurse’s team winning for presentation, creativity, and their use of the entire fish. Then both teams of kids got to dig in and enjoy their delicious, fresh dishes!