Inaugural Bacon-Off Cooking Contest scheduled for Nov. 14
Published in the Oct. 14-27, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
Photo by Marty Cheek
Starr Fries, senior barista at GVA Cafe, displays fresh-baked bacon gingerbread cake and a peach cobbler at the downtown eatery.
Depending on who tells the story, the bacon-themed desserts and coffees at Grinds, Vines & Automobilia Cafe started off either as a joke or an accident. And now the downtown coffee shop that’s famous for its pork-themed cuisines is inviting home cooks to come up with their own dessert and deli recipes using the delicious ingredient. Its inaugural “Bacon-Off” Cooking Contest will be held at 11 a.m. Nov. 14.
GVA Owner Renee Carrillo describes how it got started: “Mary Connolly (the cafe manager) was baking a coffee cake and she was making bacon bits at the same time and she was waiting for the coffee cake to rise while she was chopping up the bacon,” Carrillo said. “A customer walked by and said, ‘Why don’t you just throw the bits in there and make bacon coffee cake?’ And Mary said, ‘I will.’ And so Mary baked the bacon in the coffee cake and it was an instant hit.”
Besides its signature pastry bacon coffee cake, GVA Cafe now serves gingerbread bacon cake, Auntie Em’s bacon cinnamon roles and, for coffee drinkers who want a taste of pork in their fresh brew, a bacon latte. The bacon coffee cake is so popular that some people ask GVA Cafe to make it and mail it during the holidays to friends and families faraway from Morgan Hill.
Carrillo encourages a creative spirit of cooking and baking at GVA because she is always looking to enhance the customers’ experience with a diversity of menu options and fun food combinations.
“We keep in mind that we have customers who come in every day, three, four times a week, so you want to have variety for them,” she said. “So we’re always trying to invent or create new things and introduce them to people.”
Even canines enjoy a treat at GVA Cafe. Carrillo came up with the idea of a “puppychino” dessert for dogs that serves as a fundraiser for the San Martin Animal Shelter. The puppychino is a light cup filled with whipped cream. Dog owners provide a donation of 25 cents or more in a tip jar to purchase the doggie dessert. In September, the puppychino raised $136 for the shelter.
“It creates a great sense of community because a lot of people in Morgan Hill have a dog and most places do not invite outdoor seating with their dogs,” Carrillo said. “At GVA Cafe, there’s not a problem if people are out here with their dogs. Now dogs run down the block with a passion and go right in front of the GVA door waiting for their puppychino. It’s quite a scene to watch a dog enjoying a puppychino.”
If the GVA Cafe staff is not baking the desserts on the premises, the shop purchases them from local businesses such as Roxanne’s Biscotti and the Gizdich Ranch pies. GVA even sells a “pie milkshake” that is a decadent dessert growing in popularity.
“We’ll take your slice of pie and add some vanilla bean gelato and a little milk and put it into the blender and make a shake,” Carrillo said. “It’s the best thing you’ve ever had.”
GVA Cafe serves the Gelato Classico brand which has no preservatives, artificial sweeteners or additives, she said.
GVA Cafe is not just a standard coffee shop. It’s one that fulfills Carrillo’s dream of getting creative in the kitchen. And she wants South Valley residents to get creative too, with a contest to come up with bacon-flavored desserts or deli dishes that will be featured on GVA’s menu. Each winner in each category will receive a pair of San Jose Sharks tickets for an upcoming ice-hockey game.
The GVA Bacon-Off Contest (a take-off of a “Bake-Off Contest”) encourages local home chefs to come up with dessert or deli food recipes using bacon. Recipes should be easy to make and not require exotic or expensive ingredients.
“Basically, people will bring in their recipe’s dish already made and we’ll have people test it and GVA Cafe will select the new baking item for our menu for the rest of the season,” she said. “We’ll make it and feature their name as the creator of the recipe. It should be a lot of fun.”
