Every year the Iowa Restaurant Association, The Soyfoods Council and the Iowa Beef Industry Council organizes a statewide Culinary Competition in search of Iowa’s top chef. The competition is unique because the competing chefs must use at least six ounces of a non-traditional cut of beef for the main entrée and at least a ¼ cup of tofu in a side dish or sauce.
This year we’re judging beef sirloin – ball tip. Check out the graphic below to learn more about the ball tip cut.
The 5th location of the 2019 competition was at The Wood Iron Grill with Chef Michael Glesner.
The Wood Iron Grill
Located in Oskaloosa on the Oskaloosa Public Golf Course, The Wood Iron Grill first opened it’s doors on October 1 of 2018. You may have heard of this restaurant before because just one year after they opened, Chef Glesner, and the team were awarded Iowa Beef Councils Best Burger. Since then, the restaurant has seen a huge incease in popularity. One staggering stat was that overnight, they went from serving 150-200 burgers a week to over 200 burgers per night!
Besides their amazing burgers, you can find traditional, and classic comfort food while also finding some things on their menu that can expose your tastebuds to something new and exciting.
No matter what you order at The Wood Iron Grill, you can’t go wrong.
The Dish
Chef Glesner prepared a classic dish but with a little twist on Julia Child’s boeuf bourguignon.
The classic garnish for this dish is a lions tooth crouton but for this competition, Chef Michael Glesner cut #tofu into the shape of a lions tooth. To give the tofu flavor he gave it a “crust” that mimics the texture of toasted bread, and used his own crouton recipe for additional flavors.
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