Tenth Annual Whale & Jazz Festival Chowder & Jazz Barnebey's Hot Four Gualala Arts Center Saturday, April 6, 2013 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

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This family-friendly midday event includes a jazz concert of traditional New Orleans jazz performed by Barnebey's Hot Four of Sonoma County free to the public accompanying the 10th annual Chowder Challenge tasting competition.

Local chefs, cooks and even amateur competitors vie for the title of "Best Mendonoma Coast Chowder." $20 includes Festival Logo wine or beer glass and 15 tickets for chowder tastings, hot bread fresh out of the oven and beverages, including fine wines and microbrews as well as soft beverages. Additional tickets are available for $1 each.

A panel of 'celebrity' judges will determine winners in both professional and amateur classes in the categories of Traditional (New England Style Clam Chowder) and an Open Class (for all manner of seafood and even vegetarian chowders). A "People's Choice" vote of the Chowder & Jazz patrons decides the most popular entry and there is even a cash award for the entrant with the 'Most Tasted' chowder!

This year the Chowder Challenge "People's Choice" and "Most Tasted" contests end promptly at 1:15 p.m. so the winners in all classes can be announced by 1:30 p.m., to give patrons a chance to sample the winner's chowders before they are all gone! Fred Adler from KTDE, 100.5 FM is music coordinator and emcee of the event.

Entry Form: Calling All Chefs!

Winners of past years' Chowder Challenges

Chowder Challenge Entrants

• Café Aquatica - A new competitor all the way from Jenner brings a traditional New England Clam Chowder and a vegetarian Shitake Mushroom Chowder.
• Ocean Cove Bar & Grill - Tamarah LeFebre is bringing their popular traditional New England Clam Chowder, which is gluten & pork free.
• Timber Cove Inn - Alexander's restaurant Executive Chef Ben St. Clair will have both a traditional New England AND an Open Class Seafood / Corn Chowder.
• Black Oak Catering - Tanya Radtkey of Annapolis is entering two Open Class selections: Smoked Salmon Chowder and a vegetarian Aztec Corn Chowder.
• Gualala Arts Culinary Guild is featuring George Marshall's multiple Chowder Challenge award-winning traditional Clam Chowder, served at Art in the Redwoods and the Festival of Trees.
• The Captain of Bones Roadhouse, Mike "Bone Daddy" Thomas, and his lovely wench, Mary, will have his well-liked traditional New England clam chowder amidst a slew of pirate booty for the kids.
• Anchor Bay Village Market's new owner and first time entrant, Alfredo Orozco, is bringing an Open Class category Salmon Chowder.
• Pier Chowder House & Tap Room's Chef Daniel Sanchez and owner Tracy DuPont will be serving both "white & red," a traditonal New England and a "Manhattan Style" Chowder.
• Garcia River Casino's River Grill Chef Denise Souza is defending her 1st place Pro title in 2012 with her traditional New England clam chowder.

Chowder Challenge Judges

• Mary Alinder was on the first judging panel of the Annual Chowder Challenge in 2004. She is a local gourmet cook and sometime food critic with a refined palate for food from chowder to cupcakes and more.
• Paul Batchelder is a local gourmand who has served as a judge in '05, '07 and '09. We're delighted to have Paul back this year.
• Maria Agis has been a cook at the Sea Ranch Lodge for many years, and has represented the following Sea Ranch Lodge chefs at past Chowder Challenges: Chef Jeff Longenecker in 2003, James Romeo in 2007, Robert Schneider in 2009 and Phillip Kaufman in 2010, 2011 & 2012. Sea Ranch Lodge has received a 1st place for both its Traditional clam chowder, and Open Class chowders. Since the Lodge's Black Point Bar & Grill restaurant is not entered this year, we have invited Maria to be a judge for the 2013 competition.
• Steve McLaughlin - Editor of our local weekly newspaper, the Independent Coast Observer (ICO), Steve will be a first time judge at the Festival, but he has attended all of the Chowder Challenges to date, so will bring an experienced palate to this year's judging panel.
• Robert (Bob) Claflin is a Chowder fancier (Chowderhead?) who admits he tries chowder at all restaurants to find the best, and has a favorite in Boston and a favorite here on the coast. Thrilled to be part of this year's judging panel, he will be judging with this criterion, "the best one is the one that tastes best to you."

Barnebey's Hot Four

The Hot Four continue to be the band of choice at the Whale & Jazz Festival's Chowder & Jazz event, having returned every year since 2006. They had also appeared for many years in Gualala sponsored by Gualala Lions Club with Barnebey's former Jazz Salvation Co. band. Barnebey has assembled a group of versatile jazz musicians well versed in a good time, swinging, improvisational style: Robert Young on reeds & cornet, Carl Lunsford on banjo & guitar and Marty Eggars on string bass.

The repertoire for the afternoon will include old favorites, the resurrection of some obscure musical gems from the golden age of jazz, and probably a few surprises for the musicians and listeners alike, all in the tradition of the free and easy music of the Big Easy and great for New Orleans traditional dancing!

Tom Barnebey, cornet & trombone

Tom has been in trad jazz since the 1960s, when he began playing banjo and piano in pizza parlors around the Los Angeles area, and cornet with the then newly formed Jelly Roll Jazz Band. After moving to Sonoma County, he led the well regarded Jazz Salvation Company for 20 years. A highlight on the JSC's schedule in last nine of those years was the annual Dixieland by the Sea concert in Gualala.

Tom is the currently the cornetist with the Zenith Jazz Band, leads a Roaring Twenties style quintet called "Beyond Salvation Jazz Band," and fills in on various instruments with other trad bands in the Bay Area.

Poster   by Hall Kelley
8½"x14"   90 KB pdf

The Gualala Arts Center, located at 46501 Old State Highway in Gualala, CA,
is open weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and weekends from noon to 4:00 p.m.
Please call (707) 884-1138 for more information, or email info@gualalaarts.org.

Serving the coastal communities of northern Sonoma & southern Mendocino Counties.