The football season officially ended Sunday with the Super Bowl. The start to the baseball season is right around the corner. Fifth-Third Ballpark is home to the West Michigan Whitecaps and exotic food. The team recently held its annual Food Cutting competition where vendors and their chefs serve up some creative concoctions in hopes of winning a place on this year’s menu.
“How extreme can we go to get people to take a look at something and dare to try it.”
Outlandish combinations whetting the appetite and pushing the boundaries of healthy eating.
“What our chef did, Chef Allen Vay, he took our yeast donut, he glazed them, cut them in half, we made bacon cheese burgers out of them. We also did a pulled pork on a sandwich itself.”
That's Dave Bommarito from Rich’s Products.
“If that wasn’t enough we took our donuts, cut them in half, we took three different kinds of cheeses, inverted the buns, buttered them…you’ve got grilled cheese donuts.”
Oh, my!
“The Bac’n Bones which is a baby back rib. There’s nothing like it anywhere.” Kate Sickrey is the broker rep for Jones Dairy in West Michigan.
“To eat that bacon texture, ham texture, off a bone...”
“Well, this is actually an old family recipe from the Jones family out of Wisconsin," explains Bill Skeels with Jones Dairy Farm.
“They used to call them butt bones back in the day when we slaughtered our own hogs they would take the ribs and do that with it on special occasions. We kind of dug up old recipes and we tried it. We tested it at our store in Wisconsin and people loved it. So now we’re serving it in some of the best restaurants in the country.”
"The Conewich is an individual piece of dough that's wrapped around a cone and baked, so it's basically an ice cream cone made out of bread. So we're able to fill it with a Waldorf salad, bacon mac and cheese, and then also a chili cheese dog."
Shuan Murphy is with Aunt Millie's Bake House.
"We focused on portability. Something that people could carry around, walk and eat at the same time without making a mess on themselves. We have it featured with these holders that will fit in a drink tray so you can put two Conewichs and two drinks and have a nice meal for a family to walk back to their seat with."
Portability, easy to make in the ballpark concession stands and the right price all go into what will end up on the Whitecaps’ 2017 menu.
Patrick Center, WGVU News.