This morning, Seattle welcomed an Alaska Air Cargo Boeing 737-400 Combi (N764AS) containing 12 tons of Alaskan Copper River Salmon, a favorite of fish connoisseurs.
One lucky fish was donated by Ocean Beauty Seafood to be cooked up for Alaska Airline’s second annual Copper Chef Cook Off Competition. The large fish was carried off the plane at SeaTac Airport by the captain and in the open market would be worth about $1,000.
Three Seattle area restaurants, Anthony’s, Elliott’s Oyster House and SkyCity at the Needle, did their best to wow the VIP judges: Jay Buhner, Seattle Mariner Hall of Famer; Mike Fourtner, deckhand on the F/V Time Bandit from Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch”; and Joe Sprague, Alaska Airlines VP of marketing.
Local Seattle celebrity John Curley provided humor and commentary while the cooks had 30 minutes to cook their best salmon. All though all three restaurants created delicious dishes for the judges and guests, Anthony’s held on to their title as Best Copper Chef of 2011 with a baked salmon topped with morel strata, rhubarb huckleberry relish and rhubarb coulis. Elliott’s Oyster House created a broiled salmon, while SkyCity grilled a salmon with Dungeness crab, morel mushroom fondue and English pea flan.
The three recipes prepared for the Copper Chef Cook-off are available to download on Alaska’s website and fish lovers are encouraged to share their own favorite salmon recipes on Twitter, using the hashtag #CRsalmon.
Along with Alaska employees and invited media, Alaska MVP members who donated 75,000 miles to the Make-a-Wish foundation were invited to celebrate the arrival of the salmon and get a taste of each recipe.
Alaska Airlines is no stranger to flying seafood. Last year, they flew more than 22 million pounds of Alaskan seafood to the continental US, including almost 350 tons of Copper River Salmon.
“We’re proud to bring this prized, wild Copper River salmon to the Lower 48 and points beyond,” said Joe Sprague, Alaska Airlines’ vice president of marketing. “With enhanced food quality procedures and additional flights to support the Alaska seafood industry, we are going the extra mile to deliver fresh seafood throughout the country.”
This story was a joint effort between AirlineReporter.com and NYCAviation.com.
