12 OCTOBER 15, 2004
Smoke Signals
Guest Chefs At Legends Get Ready For Super Challege
Tribal member Manuel Diaz gets to play "The Apprentice" role.
By Peta Tinda
Three guest chefs were at Spirit
Mountain Casino to help with the
Casino's entry into the 2004 Culi
nary Super Challenge, a national
cooking competition held in Florida,
with a top prize of $12,000.
The contest was postponed due to
the recent hurricanes in the Sun
shine State, but was re-scheduled
for late October.
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Craftsmen Guest Chef Shawn Hardin,
(right) helps Spirit Mountain Casino Executive
Chef Toby TenEyck with the Casino's entry in
the 2005 Culinary Super Challenge, a national
contest that encourages chefs to develop new
recipes in hopes of winning.
Richard Burr, John Fisher and
Shawn Hanlin cook for such pres
tigious Portland establishments as
Holladay Park plaza and the down
town Portland Hilton.
This year the team's entry into the
culinary challenge is a riverboat
themed meal, using Pacific North
west ingredients.
Burr, who was on the 2000 Na
tional Culinary Team, said he
thought their chances at the Super
Challenge were good.
"We've got a little experience," he
said with grin. "We can shake the
pans.
"We try to focus on using ingredi
ents from the area," said Burr,
shucking fresh Kumamoto
oysters for the first course
of the meal.
"It's great of Spirit Moun
tain Casino to sponsor us
and be supportive of having
the chefs better them
selves," said Burr. "It's a
great opportunity to learn
for all of us and the chefs
who work here."
Burr said that the key to
fine cuisine was using only
the finest ingredients.
"We buy the best ingredi
ents we can, fresh seafood
the best possible ingredi
ents." The team also included
Casino Executive Chef
Toby TenEyck and Tribal
member Manuel Diaz, who
recently moved from Ari
zona and attended the Cor
don Bleu Culinary Academy
in Portland.
Diaz, the son of Deanna
and Manuel Diaz, lives in
Willamina and said that he
always wanted to be a chef.
"I always used to help my
mom around the kitchen,"
said Diaz, opening a box of
fresh sage for the turkey tureen he
and the other chefs were making for
the competition.
At the academy, Diaz took a 13
month crash course in everything
from baking, confectionary, saute,
food safety, wine and spirits, man
agement, marketing and everything
one needs to know to work in a
high-end restaurant.
He also took the introductory
Sommelier course which taught
him about wine and what wine goes
with what dish.
Diaz, 21, attended the Academy
right out of high school. An appren
tice chef for 4 years, says the job
challenges him to be creative and
pay close attention to detail.
He works as a line chef at the
Legends Restaurant and says he
takes great pride in the quality of
the food that he and the other Leg
ends' chefs produce.
"Everybody works hard," he said.
"Everybody makes everybody else
look good with the quality of the
food that goes out, how it looks, how
it tastes. There's a sense of pride
that goes into everything we do
that every plate has to look good."
The chefs have to use ingredients
provided by the Super Challenge's
sponsors, namely Jennie-O tur
keys, Land o' Lakes butter,
Mcllhenny tabasco sauce and
Florida Beef Council beef.
To that end, the chefs have to
prepare a three-star meal using the
specified ingredients.
The flat iron steaks are made with
choice cuts of beef, the pate with
Jennie-O turkey, the Tabasco fla
vors the breading on the flat irons,
and liberal amounts of Land o'
Lakes butter are used throughout.
"We decided to do the pate be
cause it's a challenged to make
something that's cost-effective, like
turkey, and something that's really
elegant, like pate," said Fisher.
How exactly do you make pate?
It's really easy, said Fisher. First
you take some fresh turkey livers,
add a little cognac, dust them with
paprika, saute until rare on both
sides, add some pork fatback, throw
in some fresh spices, say, a little
thyme, marjoram, sage, shallots, a
-'
The Apprentice Tribal mem
ber Manuel Diaz, 2 1 , is a chef at casino.
Diaz attended the Cordon Bleu Acad
emy in Portland and is one of the chefs
competing in the contest.
couple garlic cloves and some port
wine, and then sprinkle with some
green peppercorns, and voila!
"...You have a really nice pate
that goes well with the micro greens
salad with gooseberry dressing and
the compote we've made with high
mountain plums... very tasty."
Okay, so not exactly easy, but
worth the effort, Fisher asserted.
TenEyck, said the Challenge was
a great opportunity for the Legends
Chefs to work with top quality chefs.
"The chefs skill level is very high,"
he said.
TenEyck said that he encouraged
the Legends' chefs to be creative in
developing their own recipes.
"The goal is that all of the courses
are stand-outs," he said.
"Also we're providing a top-notch
dining experience and providing a
training opportunity for our staff.
At Legends, TenEyck said, "You
can always expect a quality dining
experience at a reasonable price. I
think we'll do really well."
Lodge Expansion Completion Set For Spring Of Next Year
Tribal construction crew just finished the last of the 15 concrete pours.
By Peta Tinda
Construction on Spirit Mountain
Casino's Lodge expansion is on
schedule, with an expected open
ing date of sometime in late March
or early April of 2005.
Workers from Howard S. Wright
Construction and the Grand Ronde
Tribal Construction Crew have fin
ished the last of 15 concrete pours.
Over 5,000 cubic yards of concrete
was used to build the new expan
sion. "It's as solid a structure as I've
seen," said Construction Manager
Dan Armstrong. "Two months ago,
there was nothing here, now were
transitioning to the finishing phase.
That's the beauty of it."
The building has what's called
post-tension concrete construction,
a method of reinforcing concrete
with high-strength steel cables,
known as tendons.
The cables are run inside the con
crete slabs when they are first
poured, then tightened with hy
draulic presses, making them very
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1
rigid and counteracting
the natural tendency of
the slabs to sag in the
middle.
This makes the structure
very strong without the
need of heavy concrete
beams.
Some of the other ben
efits of this construction
method are shrinkage and
crack control, faster con
struction and less concrete
is needed.
The new lodge expan
sion will also be very safe,
with everything built of
non-combustible materials
and up to the latest build
ing code standards. It has
a total of nine heavy shear
walls which brace the
building against wind and
seismic loads.
These walls are an
chored to pilings driven 30
feet into the ground.
The exterior cladding, complete
with casino colors already painted,
has begun to be added, and is ex
pected to be complete within 30-45
days. After the cladding is applied,
work will begin on the interior.
In the meantime, a model room
will be on display to show guests
what the new Lodge accommoda
tions will look like.
The expansion will house 163
rooms with the top floor home to 13
double-room suites.
There are also plans in the works
for a swimming pool and activity
center to be built on to the south
west side of the casino in 2005.
After the pool is in, a 30,000
square-foot conference center will
be built adjacent to the pool.
Spirit Mountain Casino Facility
Services Manager Ron Sabatini
says that these numbers are pre
liminary, but give a good idea of
some of the projects that Spirit
Mountain has planned in the near
future.