Going Dutch: Pasco couple goes low tech to become world champs

A chicken, two lemons, a little bag of nuts and some chocolate chips.

That plus some spices, corn starch and sour cream were all Kathy and Dan Caldwell had to work with.

What the Pasco couple cooked up — a meal of Asian-influenced popcorn chicken, pesto rolls and a chocolate cake — tempted the taste buds and thrilled the judges. And it earned them first place at the International Dutch Oven Society’s World Championship Cook-off in Salt Lake City.

There was a mad dash for ingredients — “There was a limited supply of everything,” Dan said — but it didn’t faze these Dutch oven gourmets. Kathy has been winning contests almost as long as she’s been cooking with cast iron.

She first became enamored with the pots during a demonstration at the Sacajawea Bluegrass Festival in 2011. A friend involved in a Dutch oven group suggested Kathy cook something for the potluck dinner that night.

“I said, ‘I don’t even have one of these things,’ ” Kathy said. “She was like, ‘I have a whole bunch, you can borrow one.’ ”

Her first dish, apple cobbler, got picked as the best dessert as the dinner, and from there she was hooked.

She began competing in smaller competitions before heading to the Walla Walla Fair, where she and a friend became grand champions, which qualified them to attend the World Championship Cook-off.

Then her friend couldn’t go, and Kathy was afraid she wouldn’t be able to go. Dan stepped in to help.

He told her, “I don’t know how to cook, but I’ll do your dishes for you. We’ll just go and have fun.”

This was the beginning of Dan’s involvement in the Dutch oven competitions.

When asked why she loves using the cast-iron pans, Kathy offers several reasons.

“It’s so much fun. Everything tastes so good and it’s kind of a challenge, and you get to manipulate things a little bit and you get to be outside,” she said.

The pair travel to several music festivals. Kathy plays the fiddle and Dan plays multiple instruments including guitar and mandolin. They bring the oven with them to prepare foods, and it starts conversations.

“You can do anything that you would do in a house with one of these,” she said. “Fried chicken, hot wings, we’ve done everything you can do in the house. The sky’s the limit.”

The pair normally practice their dishes for competitions, and have been expanding their repertoire into Asian-influenced cuisine, starting with briskets. In Walla Walla, they prepared Korean short rib street tacos.

“It’s kind of a fun challenge, because you familiarize yourself with some spices and flavors that you don’t normally cook with,” Karen said.

So what’s next on their plate? Maybe some Indian.

This story was originally published September 17, 2017 at 1:04 PM with the headline "Going Dutch: Pasco couple goes low tech to become world champs."