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Fresno native in national cookoff

Published online on Tuesday, Sep. 15, 2009

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The deadline for the Big Fresno Fair's cooking contests may have ended last week, but judging from your interest, the excitement over cooking competitions continues.

After my column about those contests, some readers told me they were encouraged to enter. Well, here's more inspiration for you: Kara Adanalian.

As one of the finalists in Ocean Spray's 2009 Ultimate Cranberry Contest, the Fresno native is headed to New York in early October. She'll cook her dish -- sweet-n- savory haricots verts -- in a bid to win $25,000 and a year's supply of Ocean Spray products. Food Network star Tyler Florence, one of the judges, will announce the winner on Oct. 6.

Now living near Pahoa, Hawaii, Adanalian is no stranger to big cooking contests. In 2004, her ribeye steak sandwich won her the title of "America's Best Home Cook" in a competition sponsored by Fine Cooking magazine and Sur La Table. Her pulled pork with mango salsa is one of 50 recipes selected for appliance-maker Thermador's "Taste of America: The Great American Oven Cookbook" (BSH Home Appliances Corp., $39.95).

She's also been a semifinalist in the National Chicken Council's 2008 contest (for her chicken Ararat with bulghur pilaf) and a finalist in Pepperidge Farm's "Puff Pastry to Paris" contest earlier this year (for a raspberry, apple and nut strudel).

"I cook every night," says Adanalian, who likes the contests because "they keep me inspired."

That winning ribeye sandwich was "something that I pulled out of my fridge one night," she says. She adapted it to fit Fine Cooking's rules. The result was an open-faced sandwich with rosemary-flavored steak; sauteed shallots, mushrooms and shallots with Marsala wine, Dijon mustard and Cambozola cheese.

"It was just a total fluke," she says. "The sandwich was the simplest of all [the dishes] and I didn't really think I had a chance of winning the grand prize."

Adanalian took home more than $15,000 worth of kitchen equipment and edged out finalists such as Janice Elder from Charlotte, N.C. The two will compete again, this time as finalists in the Ocean Spray competition.

For the Ocean Spray contest, Adanalian played with a lot of cranberries, green beans and nuts. Her sweet-n-savory haricots verts are flavored with cumin seed, curry powder and sherry.

Elder is cooking her Monte Cristo strata. It features turkey, ham, Swiss cheese and cranberry sauce.

Adanalian is happy she'll see Elder. "She was one of the most gracious people," she says.

They may even run into each other in future contests. Since Adanalian started winning contests, friends and family keep telling her to enter more of them.

"Everybody in my family is a good cook," Adanalian says. "My aunt and my grandmother were always making paklava, and the men would make shish kebab."

It's been a long time since Adanalian has lived full time in the Valley. After graduating from Sanger High School, Adanalian headed north to Sonoma State University. She settled in the Bay Area and launched Acme Graphics, a design company that specializes in print and Internet work.

In 2007, she and her husband moved to Hawaii. The tropics have influenced her cooking, leading her to flavor pork with ginger, pineapple and Maui onions for the recipe that made the Thermador cookbook.

Adanalian rattles off so many ideas, that just talking to her makes me want to get into the kitchen. Check out some of her recipes here, and see more of them on my blog. I'll also include Fine Cooking's link to videos of her -- so you, too, can get a glimpse of competing on a national level.