In its first year under the Sweet Grown Alabama banner, the Alabama Seafood Cook-Off recently continued its legacy of highlighting Alabama-grown products, especially Alabama Gulf Seafood, with delicious, innovative seafood preparations.

With four teams competing for the prestigious win at The Wharf in Orange Beach, Chef Ben Rosen and Sous Chef Walker Hughes of Auburn’s The Depot garnered the crown with their “Alabama Summer” dish of marinated, pecan-grilled cobia, sweet corn with Bill-E’s bacon, risotto fried green tomato, cobia confit lump blue crab rillette, charred peach and blistered okra relish, and black lemon herb butter.

“It feels amazing,” said Rosen, who was sous chef with Hughes at last year’s competition. “Being able to be selected, being able to plan it, and then coming in and winning this thing is just a fantastic feat for me, because I’ve only been with (Executive Chef) Scott Simpson at The Depot for a year-and-a-half. I started out as a lead grill cook and then a lead sauté cook. Last year, right after this competition, he promoted me to demi chef de partie. Then in October, I became chef de partie. So, it’s been a whirlwind for me, and the last year has just been fantastic.”

Rosen, who advances to the Great American Seafood Cook-Off in New Orleans later this summer, said his use of cobia, a pelagic fish that is on the rebound after numerous years of decline, may have made the difference.

“I don’t really know what sealed the deal, but it may have been the utilization of the cobia belly,” he said. “Cobia is a very underutilized fish as well. I know that’s why Chef Emilio (Urban) chose it. Snapper is very well-known and very versatile. I thought about doing something with snapper, and then I was going with wahoo, but I changed it to cobia at the last minute.

“For thick fillets like cobia, wahoo, or mahi, really the key is to not overcook it.”

Rosen said he marinated the cobia belly in parsley, cilantro, cumin, smoked paprika, olive oil, lemon juice, and lemon zest. The relish was made with grilled peach and blistered okra, two different varieties of fresh okra, and pickled okra. The risotto had arboreal rice, Alabama sweet corn, and Bill-E’s bacon of Fairhope. Rosen said he used a simple cream butter sauce with herbs as well as cuttlefish ink to make it black.

“With the fried green tomatoes, it’s my own recipe with a little bit of cornmeal, masa flour, Cajun seasoning, salt, and pepper,” he said. “They’re put in buttermilk to loosen the tendons and make them more tender. Then they’re dredged in the dry mixture before frying.”

Rosen thought the crowning touch was the cobia confit with lump blue crab.

“The cobia belly is confited (slow-cooked in oil or fat),” he said. “The lump crab meat is mixed in with a little bit of cream cheese, a little bit of lemon preserve, and just a hint of salt to help bring out that flavoring of the lemon.”

Rosen said he was happy with his presentation, but also knew the competition was extremely tough.

As Rosen said, Emilio Urban of Coastal Restaurant in Orange Beach also used cobia, also known as ling or lemonfish. Urban’s dish was spiced cobia, savory blue crab Basque cheesecake, burnt honey bacon brittle, watermelon pearls, lemon drop pepper beurre blanc, and fresh herbs.

Chef Austin Salinas of Hatch Restaurant in Huntsville prepared poached red snapper, ginger kohlrabi slaw, shiso-wrapped sushi rice, and garden pesto.

Chef Megan Vanderford of Odette from Florence served seared flounder with pork and crawfish rice dressing, Kodachrome (Gardens) salsa verde, and charred broccolini.

Entries were judged based on numerous categories – Presentation, General Impression and Serving Methods; Creativity and Practicality; Composition and Harmony of Ingredients; Correct Preparation and Craftsmanship; and Flavor, Taste and Texture.

The Alabama Seafood Cook-Off was previously held under the direction of the Alabama Seafood Marketing Commission and was transferred to Sweet Grown Alabama, an offshoot of the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries.

Agriculture Commissioner Rick Pate said shifting the promotion of Alabama wild seafood to Sweet Grown Alabama was a no-brainer.

“We were really one of the last states to realize how much people wanted to buy local,” Commissioner Pate said. “It’s so important that we picked that up. This is a natural evolution for us to promote seafood. We have a lot of protein with Sweet Grown, a lot of freezer meats, and pork grown in Alabama, more than you would think. So, yeah, it was a good fit to bring seafood in.”

Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) Commissioner Chris Blankenship said the Alabama Seafood Marketing Commission had been operating for almost 13 years under ADCNR guidance with funds derived from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement.

“The Commission kind of got to the end in looking at where we were with our funding and what was best long-term,” Commissioner Blankenship said. “It just made sense to me with what they had going on with Sweet Grown Alabama and how they were already promoting Alabama produce, fruits, farm products, and other proteins that we should fold seafood into that as well and do it all as one big program. I called Commissioner Pate and talked to the board at Sweet Grown, and they were receptive to that idea.

“All the seafood marketing is transitioning to Sweet Grown, and I think it’s going to be great. They have a great program now. They got a little funding through the Legislature, and we hope to help them get some longer-term funding to blend in the seafood with what they’re doing. It’s really good for Alabama farmers and fishermen to do it all together.”

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“We had great quality chefs again, and they took fresh Alabama seafood and made delicious dishes with it,” he said. “But, like they’ve done from the very beginning, they pair that with good Alabama produce. It really marries all those Alabama products into a great dish. I was so glad to see these chefs taking all that good Alabama product and putting it into a dish that is not only delicious, but also promotes all of the industries in Alabama.”

Chef Jim Smith of Hummingbird Way restaurant in Mobile served as chair of the Alabama Seafood Marketing Commission for most of its existence, and he’s glad to see Sweet Grown Alabama step up to continue promoting Alabama seafood.

“It’s been a very seamless transition,” Smith said. “I’m happy that all the time and effort that went into making the Seafood Commission successful is now finding a place to live on in a larger Alabama marketing scheme.”

Smith also served as a preliminary judge to help select the four finalists by evaluating all the recipes.

“It’s really a good system,” he said. “It’s entirely blind. I evaluate them by checking if they are good in a competition setting, if they’re Alabama ingredients, and if they tell a story about Alabama. This group this year has been excellent with creative recipes as well as awesome utilization of Alabama products, and I’m proud to see Sweet Grown Alabama has seen the value in this great celebration of Alabama seafood.”

Ellie Watson, Director of Sweet Grown Alabama, added, “This event is more than just a cook-off; it’s a celebration of our state’s incredible culinary talent and our thriving seafood industry. We’re proud to connect local chefs with Alabama farmers and fishermen to showcase just how special our homegrown ingredients truly are. The energy and excitement this year were unmatched, it’s a testament to the strength of our local food community.”

David Rainer is an award-winning writer who has covered Alabama’s great outdoors for 25 years. The former outdoors editor at the Mobile Press-Register, he writes for Outdoor Alabama, the website of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.