Elbow Beach Seahorse Grill chef Terry Clark was crowned Bermuda’s top chef after winning the prestigious Escoffier Cup during a knock-down, drag-out cook-off at the Gourmet Getaway on Sunday afternoon.

During the finals, four chefs had 45 minutes to fabricate and cook and five minutes to plate their dishes.

No advanced preparation or cooking was allowed.

Vegetables could be washed, and the competitors were allowed to bring in a few basic things like stock or pre-soaked beans.

This year, there were no television screens in the cook-off tent, as there were last year, but this was no loss as they didn’t really work before due to too much light coming into the tents and poor focusing of cameras.

Unfortunately, something is needed to improve the visuals. The cooking platforms were still too far above eye level for the audience to get a true feel for what was going on. Seating really needs to be in bleachers or on a sharp grade to compensate for the height of the cooking platforms. People pay $75 a ticket per day to see these events, they should be able to see what they paid for.

The final cook-off tent also needs to be a lot bigger. There were at least five or six rows of people sitting or standing outside the tent.

Also, there was a deep sigh of disappointment from the audience as it was announced that people wouldn’t be getting samples, as they did during the semi-finals. So people couldn’t see very well, and couldn’t get a taste either. However, the general competition excitement was enough to keep people’s interest.

The Gourmet Getaway 2006 was hosted by American celebrity chef Bobby Flay, who has been the star of several cooking shows including ‘Boy Meets Grill’ and ‘Hot off the Grill with Bobby Flay’ as well as one of the chefs of ‘Iron Chef America’. Mr. Flay narrated the Escoffier Cup finals, dashing from competitor to competitor to see what they were chopping or throwing into the pot.

Chefs in the final were required to make a dish using Hormel Pork tenderloin. Mr. Clark’s pork tenderloin dish involved chicken mousse in morel mushrooms and a chocolate sauce for the meat, among other components.

Mr. Clark used every last minute of preparation and plating time. With only three minutes of preparation left on the clock, Mr. Clark had three new pans going on the stove. When it became apparent that Mr. Clark was cutting it to the wire, Mr. Flay said, “Obviously, Terry Clark likes the drama of this. He is a true Iron Chef — wait to the last second, and then ‘oh, yeah, one more thing — two more things’.”

Other competitors in the final round including Vijayakumar Velayudhan also of the Seahorse Grill, Beat Muller of the Newport Room and Gerry Adams of the Salt Rock Grill. The chefs competed in pairs. Mr. Clark went up against Beat Mueller of the Newport Room. Mr. Mueller was from Switzerland, and had only been on the Island for four months.

Mr. Clark, originally from Johannesburg, South Africa, qualified for the finals during the beef semi-final round held at International Imports with ‘Seared Beef Tri-Tip Marinated in Coffee and Chipotle Pepper, Crushed Roast Parsnip and Scallion Mash scented with Toasted Cumin, Pickled Beetroot Puree, Sautéed Morels and Edamame.

For some chefs, the final round of the fourth annual Escoffier Cup was literally ‘knock-down, drag out’. Early on in the competition Chef Adams had to pause to be bandaged after cutting himself during his preparations, but the Scotsman went on cheerfully.

Mr. Adams possibly came with the loudest cheering section. At times the Adams section of the crowd chanted ‘Gerry, Gerry!’.

At one point Mr. Adams beamed at his fan base and said jokingly, “Hi Mom”. Mr. Adams had the best stage presence.

Mr. Velayudhin, who was paired with Mr. Adams, was much more intense about his cooking. He was there to win, and not to play to the crowd.

Host Mr. Flay seemed to get on Mr. Velayudhin’s nerves a bit, as Mr. Flay had a tendency to get behind the chef in a tight space. When Mr. Velayudhin needed to move around his workspace he moved very quickly, and once or twice almost crashed into Mr. Flay who had ‘popped’ up on the other side of Mr. Velayudhin to sniff a pot. His answers to Mr. Flay’s questions tended to be one word.

“This man’s dish is a total mystery to me,” Mr. Flay said on several occasions.

Unfortunately, for Mr. Adams his literal blood, sweat and tears was just not enough. Back at work at the Salt Rock Grill in Somerset, soon after the competition,

Mr. Adams told The Royal Gazette <$>shortly before the winners were announced, that he was pretty sure he hadn’t won.

“We make simple food here,” Mr. Adams said, “and the other chefs had very complex dishes. It was still a great competition.”

Still, Mr. Adams went off to the Gala Dinner at the Southampton Princess in full Scottish dress kilt in good humour, leaving behind many well-wishers at the Salt Rock Grill.