Wisconsin State Journal
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
By JOE STARR For the State Journal

Saturday morning crowds at the Dane County Farmers' Market brought back familiar sounds, sights and smells to "White Jasmine Everyday Cooking Show'' host Huma Siddiqui.

Thinking back to her childhood in Islamabad, Pakistan, Siddiqui recalled how the family's cook worked every morning with her mom to make a list of the ingredients needed to create the day's meals. With the list in hand, he would head to the market to buy all the fresh vegetables, meats, breads and other ingredients needed that day.

"There was no concept of storing food," said Siddiqui, whose show airs on My Madison TV, cable Ch. 14, on Sundays. "Everything was available right there at the market, and our cook would bring all the fresh ingredients into every meal."

Much of what Siddiqui knows and loves about cooking came from her mother. Those fragrant memories from childhood surfaced again during her dash through the Farmers' Market to gather ingredients needed for the meal she would prepare for the first annual Cooking With The Stars competition.

The contest was part of the Research, Education, Action and Policy (REAP) group's 9th annual Food For Thought Festival, held on a crisp, sunny Saturday morning alongside the Farmers' Market on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The contest paired area chefs with local celebrities in a head-to-head battle to see who could whip up the best dish in one hour, using only Wisconsin-grown and -raised ingredients.

"There is a diversity of local products in Wisconsin, but the range of those foods that we actually eat is pretty narrow," said REAP's Buy Fresh Buy Local Southern Wisconsin Coordinator Rachel Armstrong. The Buy Fresh Buy Local program works with restaurants, food stores, farmer's markets and farmers to grow the market for produce, meat, cheese, dairy, and eggs grown and raised in southern Wisconsin.

The Cooking With The Stars competition has been described as a combination of the "Dancing With The Stars'' and "Iron Chef'' television shows. Siddiqui's star partner, Alice in Dairyland 2007 Jill Makovec, admitted to being a little nervous prior to the event. She joked that she would have felt better if the event leaned more toward "Dancing With The Stars,'' saying her dance skills far outweighed her culinary aptitude. But when it came time to start, Makovec said that she was in it to win.

"This event is a great way to increase the awareness of buying local. If we can help our local producers, that helps preserve our farmland, it helps strengthen our communities and keeps agriculture as a leading industry in our state."

Working together

Makovec and Siddiqui quickly developed good team chemistry as they dodged their way through the heavy farmer's market traffic with NASCAR precision. They were limited to 30 minutes shopping time, so every second counted.

"Last Saturday, I went to the Farmers' Market and scoped out where the ingredients I would need were at," said Siddiqui. Her preparation paid off, too, as the team swiftly moved from stand to stand, wisely using the $30 they were given by selecting only the exact amount of each ingredient they would need for their three-course meal. Makovec kept the team from breaking its budget when she suggested substituting a $3 jar of honey for the $6 jar of peach butter that Siddiqui had been eyeing. Makovec made the deal sound even sweeter by mentioning that September was National Honey Month. From there the team raced to purchase the last item, a garlic bulb, and head back to begin washing their purchases.

Not far behind them was the competition, and this team was fired up and ready to cook. Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz wasted no time instigating some friendly trash talk with Makovec.

"We're going to take Alice down," growled Cieslewicz, referring to how he and teammate, The Dardanelles owner Barbara Wright, were going to crush the competition.

Makovec wasn't intimidated by Cieslewicz, as she easily traded verbal jabs with the mayor. The good-natured banter added flavor to the competition, entertaining the audience of more than 100 people in and around the tent.

The two teams were in their onstage kitchen, equipped with pots, pans and all the other cooking equipment - including gas ranges - necessary to create their meals. They quickly settled in and began chopping and mixing vegetables.

Master of Ceremonies Peter Robertson moved back and forth between the two teams looking over shoulders and asking questions. "What do you call this?" Robertson asked Siddiqui, pointing to a colorful medley of crisp red, yellow, green and purple peppers bubbling in a heated saute pan with zucchini, tomatoes, red onion, basil, garlic, chili powder, with a little turmeric and salt.

"Call it whatever you like," said Siddiqui, playfully avoiding a direct answer. "We just buy all the fresh ingredients from the market and throw it together."

Pushing freshness

Some of the best opportunities to promote awareness for Wisconsin's fresh products come through local television cooking shows like Siddiqui's and the many area restaurants that buy local.

"We love our restaurants around here," said Armstrong of REAP. "We have so many of them. We have great local chefs and great locally owned establishments. Restaurants and chefs really get the local produce idea. They know that it's fresher, it lasts longer in their walk-in (coolers), it's prettier, it's everything they want.

"But it is a bit outside the norm and some restaurants might not be comfortable knowing how to get this produce and how to work with the farmers. And even when they do, even when they figure out who has the potatoes they want and how they get them, they need to know how to communicate that to the consumer. That's where the Buy Fresh, Buy Local comes in. We actually help them with sourcing local then we help them to market that to consumers."

Wright says she has seen an increasing shift in recent years toward using locally grown, but admits that there is still room for improvement. "A lot of people still aren't aware of all the products grown right here in Wisconsin," said Wright, while busily moving from one side of the makeshift kitchen to the other in a kind of culinary two-step with Cieslewicz.

Finishing the job

Time was quickly slipping away as the two teams continued cutting, mixing and cooking. Cieslewicz, decked out in his red Badger hat and sweatshirt, had his game face on. He was concentrating on the food processor operations, carefully negotiating just the right consistency in a mix of salsa jack cheese, tomato, and red and green onions that would go into their first course of stuffed tomatoes. Their second course was a beautiful presentation of zucchini and summer squash cut into colorful strips and sauteed with a bit of red wine vinegar, garlic and tiny pieces of red pepper. This was topped with fresh tomato sauce, fresh basil, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper.

Siddiqui and Makovec cooked up a colorful second course, with red onion and two types of eggplant sauteed in olive oil with whole cumin seed, cilantro and flavored with Siddiqui's own Tandoori Masala spice blend.

Both teams topped off their meals with two deliciously different deserts. Cieslewicz and Wright went with poached pears. The pears were heated in apple cider mixed with pure maple syrup, a bit of citrus zest, cinnamon and some of Siddiqui's exotic spices, which were shared by both teams to maintain an even playing field.

Siddiqui and Makovec went the rich route with a chocolate cake (bought at the market), which they drizzled with basswood honey and covered in raspberries.

The two teams cooked down to the final seconds. Three audience members judged the meals. One judge described Cieslewicz's and Wright's meal as "fresh and delicious," while Siddiqui's and Makovec's creation was described as filled with "soul and flavor."

After thoroughly digesting the options before them, the judges made their decisions, splitting 2 to 1 in favor of Siddiqui and Makovec. Cheers erupted from the crowd as handshakes and hugs exchanged on stage between the contestants.

Even though Wright lost, she was still smiling.

"When you compete in these contests a lot, sometimes you lose and sometimes you win,'' she said. "To me the value wasn't who won or lost. What it was is people could see it is possible that with $30 you can go to the farmer's market and you can buy enough to make a fabulous meal."

Award Winning Recipes