Dennis Morrisroe won the 4th annual Iron Horse Chef Competition, wresting the traveling jacket from the defending champion, Cyprus Cafe’s Vera Hansen, at Saturday’s Durango Farmers Market finale. Sponsored by Healthy Lifestyle La Plata, CSU Extension Service and Durango Farmers Market, the event showcases the talents of local chefs using foods grown by area farmers and ranchers.

How do you pick a winner between two great chefs with vastly differing styles?

For me, it’s as simple as choosing the favorite between two kids. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the older one wins. On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, it’s the younger. By the time Sunday rolls around, I can’t stand either of ’em.

You would have thought eating eight plates of food in one hour would have caused a similar reaction, with judges throwing up their hands, protesting, “Enough!”

Not a chance. Judges oohed and aahed, opining about each selection to emcees Lauren Slaff and Christina Rinderle and a cheering audience of a couple hundred lip-licking spectators.

Morrisroe, working under the independent banner of “Renegade Local Chef,” stayed with the theme “simple satisfies,” to showcase hearty combinations of food, prepared using everyday kitchen utensils and techniques. A familiar face around town, Morrisroe currently works as a line cook at Cosmopolitan and as a guest chef at Dunton Hot Springs near Dolores, where he was an executive chef for three years. Morrisroe also cooks, by request, for interactive dinner parties hosted in private homes.

Hansen, longtime executive chef at Cyprus Café, wowed the crowd with an aromatic fusion of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern flavors. Both shopped the market efficiently and turned out their multi-course feasts made from local ingredients within the hour prep time allotted.

Patterned after a similar, nationally televised culinary contest that pits chefs against each other and the clock, the unveiling of the day’s “secret ingredient,” pork, kicked off the three-hour event.

The two chefs and their accomplices, Durango High School’s Pro-Start culinary team members Dorrian Casto and Walker Rodman, raced through the market, shopping lists in hand and camera-toting fans in their wake.

Canopied cooking stations protected grills, cutting boards, and sauté pans on propane-fired stoves. Coolers contained staples – olive oil, vinegar, locally-foraged chanterelles, cream, butter, citrus, brown sugar and couscous

Judges scored the four-course meals on taste, creativity, originality and use of items featured at the farmers market.

Two of the four judges, First National Bank’s Steve Short and Park Elementary School teacher Sue Kriehn, practiced moderation while sampling each dish.

The judges tipping the fat end of the table, where I was sitting, practically licked their plates. Pork supplier Roger Coles’ justification was that he was up farming since 4 a.m., working on an empty stomach. I offered no excuse.

Both chefs concurred the day was an enjoyable adventure but admitted they would have liked knowing what the other was cooking.

“I didn’t get to really see or taste Vera’s food, but what I saw (when it was getting plated) looked really nice,” Morrisroe said. “I thought it could go either way. Vera’s got a really great palate. I was worried up to the very end.”

Morrisroe said he was pleased that his simple approach allowed him to feature his very best use of what was available that day. He opened with an arugula pesto bruschette featuring cheese, herbs and locally baked, organic baguettes. His couscous-based salad was made with crunchy, sugar-snap peas, ground pork and sautéed, minced root vegetables, served in an iceberg lettuce cup.

The entrée was a perfectly grilled, medium-rare Cole Ranch pork chop, dressed with a cream-based corn and chanterelle ragu and served with a side of red potatoes and savory, honey-glazed summer carrots. Beautifully caramelized peaches in a honey anglaise over a gingersnap cookie made for a sweet finish.

After the event, Hansen threw compliments to Morrisroe, saying she worked hard to come up with an original menu that would enable her to go head to head with her talented competition. “Dennis is an awesome chef,” she said.

Hansen, too, took advantage of the availability of wild mushrooms, using chanterelles in her salad opener, featuring a spicy mix of nutrient-packed greens.

She then introduced a show-stopping Middle Eastern cold tomato soup that paired a selection of vine-ripened pureed tomatoes with honey, rosewater and a hint of lavender.

A vegan sandwich, packed with colorful produce on focaccia, preceded the entrée plate of Cole Ranch pork in an aromatic vegetable curry. Hansen used a spirolizer to create a rainbow-colored, spaghetti-like presentation of beets, carrots and zucchini as a side.

A surprise intermezzo of homemade yogurt re-energized, rather than cleansed, the palate. Her lemon curd dessert, featuring a snicker doodle, elicited compliments from one judge, who reminisced that the cookie was as good as those his grandmother baked.

“I probably should have cooked some meatballs,” Hansen joked about her use of tamarind, rosewater and the complex blend of seasonings that went into the curry.

“I may have over-thought this. I kind of went out of the box,” she said.

Darcy Craig, co-organizer of the event, praised the ongoing efforts of the farmers, volunteers, food producers and chefs such as Hansen and Morrisroe who help nourish the community.

The fun-spirited competition is about education, Craig said, giving spectators the opportunity to learned how to cook something healthy and tasty using locally grown whole foods.

“Durango is a little more attuned, conscious and mindful about the value of good food,” she said.