Local chefs compete for sausage king title
David Moye | Downtown News
One thing you can say about an event called “Sausage Fest”: Everyone’s a wiener.
Now in its second year, this year’s Sausage Fest will heat up June 19 at LOUNGEsix, the rooftop terrace atop Kimpton’s Hotel Solamar. The carne-centric competion pits chefs from 10 top local restaurants to see who will be the “Master of Meat,” or, if you prefer, “Best of the Wurst.”
“It’s fun, but chefs are competitive, no matter how you slice it,” Saltbox chef Simon Dolinky said.
Besides Saltbox and host restaurant JSix, Whisknladle, The Linkery, Carnitas’ Snack Shack, Urban Solace, Burlap, Europa Sausage, Cowboy Star and Coronado Brewing Company will all be grilling each other in between grilling sausages made especially for the event.
“I’ve run a couple of batches at Saltbox to get into sausage shape,” Dolinky said. “The trick to this is doing something unique, whether it’s in size, shape, or name. Whatever it is, you want people to be able to remember it after 12-15 sausages.”
“I think the winner last year did a curry in lamb sausage, but others might use fois gras,” JSix chef Christian Graves said. “The cool thing about sausages is that it’s beautiful peasant food. There are so many different ways you can do it.”
There is an old joke that if you like politics or sausages, don’t watch them being made, but Graves enjoys doing — watching sausages anyway.
“These sausages are all being made by people who are very into food and where it’s sourced,” he said.
Dolinky believes that sausages get a bad wrap.
“American hot dogs have ruined the rep of sausages,” he said. “Most good chefs have a theory that stockpots and sausages aren’t the place to put garbage.”
A native of Milwaukee, Dolinky said that he’s been preparing for Sausage Fest for nearly 30 years.
“I grew up around bratwurst and Polish sausage and knew from a young age, that if I wanted to succeed, I’d have to be good at making sausage,” he said. “But I worked in New Orleans so I’m torn between andouille and bratwurst.”
Besides being a real “meat market,” Sausage Fest should be an event that gets local beer geeks hopping because San Marcos brewery Lost Abbey will officially unveil their highly anticipated German lager, “The Road to Helles.”
“Sausages really go well with the hoppy craft beers that are popular [in the area],” he said.
Seeing the rise of San Diego’s beer scene makes Dolinky think that a local sausage boom could also happen.
“Actually, you’re getting a taste of that now,” he said. “It’s been here since the opening of The Linkery, but there is an underground sausage scene here.”
Sausage Fest tickets cost $10 for the sausage, while 1-liter take-home steins full of Lost Abbey beer will be available for $20. For more information, check out sdsausagefest.com.
San Diego native David Moye writes Weird News for the Huffington Post. You can learn more about him at huffingtonpost.com/david-moye.
