Seafood Throwdown Check List for Success

Before the event

Contact local board of health
Get chefs, judges, and emcee lined up
Send press release to local media (for a sample press release, visit: http://namanet.org/press/press-releases)
Invite fishermen and others from the fishing community to participate

Supplies for the event

These suggestions are based on an event being held in conjunction with a Farmers’ Market or other venue where the Teams can shop for ingredients to pair with their mystery seafood. If you are working with us to put on a Seafood Throwdown we have most of the gear below which packs into four large plastic tubs.

• Consider tents to cover your cooking and judging venue if available/as needed
• 4 long tables for cooking- form 2 Ls
• Plus an additional table in the middle for your emcees, judges, guests, filleting/shucking demo, plus a few chairs
• Sufficient drinking water for cooks, judges, emcee, roadies
• 2 three burner stove top propane grills with regulators
• 2 table top propane grills with regulators and grill brushes and crumbcatchers
• 4 propane tanks, 2 igniters, and at least 1 fire extinguisher
• 4 large Rubbermaid water jugs for wash stations – two with chlorine tablets in them
• 4 five gallon buckets w/ lids 2 for waste water, 2 for garbage + cleanup brushes
• 2 trash cans, with bags to fit
• 2 hand sanitizers, wipes, paper towels, aluminum foil
• Butcher paper or contact paper if necessary to keep table surfaces sanitary/presentable
• Food service grade gloves - 1 box for each cooking team
• 2 olive oil dispensers + backup oil supply
• 2 salt & pepper shakers + backup supply
• 4 or 6 garlic bulbs
• 12 lemons/limes
• 2 shopping/marketing baskets for shopping at the market
• 2 $25 shopping stipend for shopping
• 3 coolers to store your mystery seafood with ice
• Signage, banners, blackboards, and an easel
• 2 or more clipboards for judges and emcee’s notes and score cards
• 2 or more pens
• Name tags for chef’s/cook’s teams, helpers, judges, emcee, sponsors
• 2 or more Plexiglas clear stands to hold your signs naming the teams
• 2 power strips and grounded exterior power cords if needed
• Bullhorn or audio system, plus a whistle/air horn to alert participants about start and end of shopping time, a clock or timer.
• “Tickets” to your already free event, showing the time of Throwdown to help encourage/remind people to stay in the area and come back for a taste
• Biodegradable and compostable forks, spoons, napkins, and small serving plates for the audience (contact us if you need help finding a source for these items)
• “Boy Scout” kit w/ a lid containing: duct tape, clear packing tape, bungee cords, rope, screwdriver, box cutter, scissors, fully charged cell phone w/ contacts on speed dial, fully charged camera that has sufficient storage media and has had the settings preset and tested
• Handouts, literature, brochures and a way to distribute these and keep from scattering

During the event

Consider writing out 5”x 8” script cards prior to the event, they help to organize the time and keep you on track. After all of the info has been written down, arrange the cards in sequence and then number them. You will end up keeping most of these (the short intro you give about the day’s schedule, intro to the mystery seafood, names of key players in your organization, their brief bios and their affiliations) and discarding some of them. In the heat of the fray it can be quite helpful to have the correct names and affiliations of all of your key players and guests, especially when they are from out of town and you’ve never met them before. We encourage signage that faces out to the public as well as another set that is viewable to the emcees, guests, or judges. The crowd “turns over” frequently and it is helpful to keep introducing your guests to the new crowd as they come by.

Here is one set of possibilities to get you started, they are only suggestions:

• Generalized Welcome statement
• Intro of the Teams
• Brief rundown of the day’s schedule & flow of today’s event
• Reveal & Brief Intro the Mystery Seafood prior to sending the teams shopping
• Give Teams shopping baskets and their $25 and send them out
• Set 15 minute timer and tell them what signal with signify end of shopping period
• Return to introductions, introduce your Judges, read their bios
• Some teams leave one member behind to fillet/skin the fish, that person will be very busy and may not to really talk with you. So, read the prepared Chef or Team bio
• If you have people running around with the chefs as they shop, have them run back and tell you what they are buying so you tell the audience and can keep things interesting
• Have the Teams tell you about the 3 favorite ingredients they brought and why
• Introduce and have each of the fishermen or you affiliates or co-presenters come to the mike to give a brief greeting and talk about what they do, collaborations, how they fit in to the vision,
• Keep referring back to your Teams by name and giving updates to the crowd
• Be sure to point out and introduce any of your local fishermen/women, captains, and on-shore folks in the crowd that are affiliated with your vision
• Re-introduce the Teams and Judges to your crowd, there will be new folks showing up-bring them up to speed. Talk about your mission.
• Give the Teams and crowd frequent feedback on how much time remains in their cooking hour. Give the crowd reminders that they will benefit from sticking close bye!
• See if one of your Judges will talk about the criteria used for judging
• Be sure to signal the formal ending of the cooking time, and then tell Teams to plate up their presentations on SMALL plates that are just tasters for the Judges (not full dinner entrée plates), and present to the Judges. Get them to explain the dish if they are comfortable with that.
• Have the helper/s start dishing up the tasters for the crowds. Stand back!
• Tell the crowd that your “silverware/plates” are biodegradable and why
• Give the judges a little space to think and write down their scores
• Bring your Teams together, up by the Judges table
• Announce the scores, winner, runner-up, while repeating the criteria. Thank the Teams, Judges, helpers, roadies and anyone else kind enough to give you space/money/supplies.
• Thank the crowd for coming. Announce your next scheduled event.