Pathfinder Chef Challenge Spotlights Pt. 1

With all the great videos coming in from chefs all across the country hoping for a chance to cook for our lucky Pathfinder along the Inca Trail, we thought we'd take a moment to give you a quick rundown of the competition.

Chef John Taus is the executive chef at Philadelphia's Snackbar restaurant, where the portions are small (just don't call them tapas, this is all-American), but irresistibly snackable. In the rustic/gourmet spirit of our trip, John keeps it down-home but high-class with menu items like brown butter popcorn, fried pig trotters with jalapeno cheese grits, and Peanut Butter Semifreddo with grape compote. You can expect to have plenty of energy on the trail if he's our winner, as Chef Taus plans on preparing some jerkies and smoked meats to snack on as we hike!

Join Chef Michael Fahey, a 30 year culinary veteran, along the Appalachian Trailup on the Blue Ridge Mountains as he whips up a very special combination of rice, shrimp, spices, snails, and the secret ingredient: beautiful mountain air! There'll certainly be plenty of that of that along the Inca Trail. No stranger to the great outdoors, Chef Fahey is also the author of Cooking American Style, Up on Cedar Mountain, "a collection of recipes and poetry from an American chef, inspired by living in an American rain forest in the southern highlands of the Appalachian Mountains."

Fish doesn't get much fresher than the Black Drum Chef Jay Norris pulls in off the side of his kayak in  in our most action-packed video yet.  Once he's back ashore in Ponte Vedre, Florida (though still outside, of course), you can watch as Jay assemble an absolutely gorgeous dish with his catch, paired with Firestone's 2007 Riesling.

Be sure to check out all the great chefs to see who might be cooking for you if you're our lucky winner, and stay tuned for more chef spotlights!