Gourmet Guys bring world tour to Wharton
By BURLON PARSONS bparsons@journal-spectator.com

Staff Photo by Burlon Parsons Gourmet Guys team, from left, Raymond Harrison, Rev. Lance Ousley and Jeff Sliva get in some practice for Saturday's Gourmet Guys' culinary tour of South America at 7 p.m. at the Wharton County Historical Museum. Tickets are $75 each and available through Friday by calling the museum at 532-2600.

It's not exactly the Food Network's Iron Chef America, but more like Throw Down with Bobby Flay as local teams cook for the 7th annual Gourmet Guys World Tour at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Wharton County Historical Museum.

What's more exciting is guests get to sample the creations.

This year the tour takes Wharton County residents to a Culinary Carnivale featuring tastes of South America.

Tickets for the event are $75 each and available until Friday by calling the museum at 532- 2600.

There are discounted tickets for first-time attendees. This is a major fundraiser for the museum.

While the 13 teams are keeping their recipes under wraps, the team of Rev. Lance Ousley, Raymond Harrison, Jeff Sliva and Matt Thigpen were willing to talk about what they were cooking. But they will be cooking for an anticipated 200 guests.

The team is doing three courses. There will be a fish soup from Brazil, cornbread from Uruguay and a bean salad from Paraguay.

All were gleaned from the Internet by Rev. Ousley.

"I looked for recipes, liked the ingredients and thought they would be good," Rev. Ousley said. "We plan to try them today and see how they taste and do adjusting, if needed."

There is one prerequisite to being on a Gourmet Guy team - the guys have to love to cook. Veteran Gourmet Guy on the team is Raymond Harrison. He was called on to cook two whole pigs for the Hawaiian tour about five years ago. Sliva has cooked in the event for four years.

Ousley's first involvement was when Harrison asked for banana leaves from his yard five years ago. The leaves were used as part of the serving bed for Harrison's roasted pigs.

"The whole event fascinated me," Ousley said. "Now the event is a family affair for my family. Son, Parkes, is part of the team and daughter, Evans, will be passing out favors."

Unlike televised cooking shows, the foods will be prepared beforehand and brought hot in crock pots. Refrigerated items will be kept iced down until the event begins.

Other teams and individuals participating in Saturday's event include: Wayne Adam and Neal Adam; Ted Cloninger; A.C. Shelton; Larry Sitka, Danny Sklar, Allen Clark and Larry Wadler; Raymond Harrison, Lance Ousley, Matt Thigpen and Jeff Sliva; Kent Hill, Russell Hill and Elias Rmeili; Harry Goudeau, Michael Goudeau and Robert Goudeau; Arthur Etheridge and Scott Carr; Dr. John Zerwas, Brandon Zerwas and Joseph Zerwas; Philip Hundl, Erich Hartzog and Donald Allen; Henry Burger and Ron Hamilton; Judge Randy Clapp and John Schmermund.

Also during the evening will be a silent auction with more than 40 items. Chairman of the Gourmet Guys event is Ann Hundl. She says the auction has some really nice items to bid on.

These include a week in a home on Nantucket Island, dinner for eight at Tony's Restaurant in Houston, dinner for eight with Horton Foote, a weekend stay at a condominium in Matagorda and one in Rockport, a weekend at the Hyatt Regency in Bastrop, carriage ride for four and a tour of the Stewart Morris Carriage House and an autographed jersey from Houston Rocket Tracy McGrady.

Ousley describes the event as a lot of fun. "Everyone who participates gets something out of it," he said. "It's also a great cultural event for the community."