If you’ve never seen a competitive cooking show like Chopped, then it might be difficult to appreciate the high-pressure stakes of a cooking competition like Chilkat Chef. 

Teams that participate are given a whole salmon and a basket of five mystery ingredients, then they have just one hour to plan and prepare four plates of food to be judged, or auctioned off during the event. 

“People love these shows,” said Sue Libenson. The competition, which launched in 2016, was her idea though she said she has never been a big part of the hands-on organizing.

The stress of timed cooking and being judged can be palpable and Libenson thinks that’s a big part of the draw. 

“The person’s always frantic, the cook, and the judges are like ‘I don’t think that was a good choice, there’s no way that souffle is going to be done on time.’ They’re always making these snarky comments,” she said.  

That part of the show is something Libenson seemed particularly interested in during a recent interview. This year’s emcees are Amelia Nash and Mike Swasey and Libenson said she trusts their snarkiness.

The judges though – including local chef and Malo Nista Catering owner Travis Kukull – say that’s a key component to the drama. 

“The judges could up the snark,” Libenson said. “This kind of has been missing that element of that cutthroat which is really what makes the show.” 

Now Chilkat Chef is not just a cooking competition. People who attend also get a banquet-style meal; also there are prizes, silent and live dessert auctions and fish printing. 

This year Erika Merklin, Alex Huller and Liz Landes are bringing the show back from its four-year hiatus and they’re leaning heavily into local foods. 

For example, all five of the mystery ingredients given to each chef are sourced from the Chilkat Valley. The banquet-style meal includes coho – donated by Harry Rietze at Haines Packing and grilled by the Jurgeleits – and local carrot and pumpkin soup, and potatoes. 

Huller said there will also be fermented vegetables, which she started preparing this week. She said there are four, maybe five teams signed up to compete. They’ll have a photographer filming it live and projecting up on a wall in Harriett Hall so people can watch the competition while they’re eating. 

The event is being hosted by the Lynn Canal Food Web, which is essentially an umbrella organization for a number of food-related resources and projects in the Upper Lynn Canal. Founder Erika Merklin said Libenson kept encouraging her to bring the competition back. 

“I think it’s a great place for [the competition] to be,” said food web founder Erika Merklin. “The intersection of fishing, harvesting and agriculture.” 

And, she said the popular event could be a good source of funding for the sustainability-focused organizations involved. 

“Chilkat Forever is going to be one of the teams,” Merklin said. Lynn Canal Conservation is serving beer and wine. The Mosquito Lake-based Four Winds Resource Center and the Chilkat Valley Food Hub are also sponsoring teams. 

“All of the ticket sales go directly to the Chilkat Valley Food Hub,” Merklin said. “That’s our focused project this year.” 

In coming years, Merklin said she has a long list of organizations and donors who could subsidize the event in the future. 

“We’re doing it number one because it’s a great event to celebrate local foods and it’s super duper fun and it’s something that everybody can get behind,” Merklin said. “And also, we’re really trying to build the local food system.” 

Ultimately, that’s something Merklin hopes people who buy tickets and attend the event think more deeply about local foods and resilience and hone in on what kinds of foods can be grown and harvested here. 

“It’s almost a bite-sized [way to get] people interested in local foods again. ‘Look at everything on your plates – it’s local,” she said. 

From there, Merklin said she’d like to explore resilience at the community level and she’s thinking big – things like shared cold and dry storage for locally produced foods. 

“Just getting people more interested in that,” Merklin said. “And coming together around food.” 

The Chilkat Chef Challenge is Oct. 12 from 5-8 p.m. at Harriett Hall. Tickets are $20 for individuals and $45 for families. They’re currently available online but will also be available at the door for a higher price.