The Iowa Pork Producers Association annual meeting is going on in Des Moines today. Monday evening the state’s top chefs competed in the group’s sixteenth annual “Taste of Elegance” competition, and the people’s choice winner was Stefan Larsson of Grand Cafe in Pella. Larson was born in Sweden and has managed kitchens and hotels in Indonesia, the Virgin Islands and Sweden. His winning dish at the pork producers’ event was a “Lemon Grass Grilled Pella Pork Filet.”He likes to mix Asian ingredients and flavors with Iowa products. Larson met an Iowa woman in his Stockholm restaurant, who invited him to work in Iowa and sent him a ticket to America. He says then he visited Pella, and while all of Iowa’s nice, he found this a special town. Larsson is executive chef at the restaurant in Pella’s Royal Amsterdam Hotel. While he won the “people’s choice” at the “Taste of Elegance” competition, the judges awarded first prize to Alexander Strauss, who runs Sans Souci Personal Chef Service in Des Moines. Wednesday and Thursday the annual Pork Congress Trade Show fills Vets Auditorium in Des Moines.
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