It's all about spaghetti gravy at Memphis Italian Festival; here's a taste of what to expect

Sherry Shackelford spent Memorial Day weekend over a pot of simmering spaghetti gravy. She wanted one more test run before entering Memphis Italian Festival this weekend.

It’s the 30th year for this festival and cooking contest that started as a fundraiser for Holy Rosary School. What originated in a parking lot with eight teams has grown into a full-blown festival and cooking competition. Now in Marquette Park, 42 teams will compete this year, and organizers expect close to 20,000 attendees.

Spaghetti gravy

Shackelford knows a thing or two about spaghetti gravy. She has competed in the spaghetti gravy cooking contest at Memphis Italian Festival for 18 years. This mom is the head cook and captain of Pazzo! (which means “crazy” in Italian) — a cooking team of 20 members.

She’s also the one to beat this year. Pazzo! is the winningest team in the 30-year history of this festival, having won the title of Grand Champion four times including the past two years.

The recipe was passed down to her by her godparents. “My godfather Earnest Ventrini came to the U.S. from Sicily,” Shackelford said. “Spaghetti was a staple in our home. I remember he would start his gravy with a roast in a huge pot.”

Over the years, Shackelford has made the recipe her own.

She works closely with a core group of five team members to make sure the gravy is spot on each year. Kerry Snyder and Brian Gaston are two team members whom she relies on heavily. Snyder, who lives in Oxford, Mississippi, was given the task of finding a new meat butcher for the team because the one they used the past few years had closed.

“Each one of them has a great palate,” Shackelford said. “With their help, we have improved upon my godfather’s original recipe.”

Instead of a roast, the beef she uses is a chili-grind brisket. The Italian sausage must be sweet on the front end with a little heat in the back. She tries to use as many local ingredients as she can, even growing her own herbs and garlic for the competition.

“Freshly grown garlic is really tender so you don’t have to chop it as finely,” she said.

Another one of her tricks to award-winning gravy is that she only uses red, yellow and orange bell peppers. She finds them less bitter than green bell peppers.

The end result is a sauce that Shackelford describes as “so thick a spoon will stand up in it.”

The competition

Everything must be cooked on site. Competing teams will transform their tents into fully functioning kitchens that also include a space to entertain family and friends throughout the weekend’s festivities. Refrigerators, stoves with multiple burners, lighting and work tables are just a handful of the items that will be loaded into each tent Wednesday.

Teams like Pazzo! will spend Thursday and Friday night celebrating and entertaining.

“On Thursday, Brian will make lasagna for everyone,” Shackelford said of their annual traditions. On Fridays each year, her husband, Matt, fries about 20 pounds of fish.

Friday morning is when the teams get down to business and start preparing their gravies.

Shackelford will have four pots going at once. She said Snyder and Gaston will help her choose which one to submit for judging.

After chopping all the ingredients, she will start the gravy. It will simmer for only about two hours on Friday before being cooled and put in the refrigerator.

“The sauce is better when cooked a day ahead,” Shackelford said. She cooks it just enough to meld the flavors, but stops the cooking process before the meat loses its texture.

On Saturday, she will slowly reheat the sauce and give it a taste test. Mostly likely, they will tweak the sauce one more time, adding ingredients like more meat, wine and baby bella mushrooms.

At that point, it is in the hands of the judges.

Judging

Richard and Vickie Ranson are the cooking teams and judges chairpersons. The couple has been involved with the festival since the first year and has been in charge of the cooking teams for the past 25 years.

“It’s like family now,” Vickie said.

“I love the traditions of the festival,” Richard said. “Moms and dads have passed this along to the second generation. There are so many teams where the mom was the cooking captain, and now it’s their kids in charge.”

Like at the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, entries at Memphis Italian Festival are judged twice — being judged in blind judging and onsite judging. New judges are vetted by the Ransons to make sure they are all business.

The winner of the spaghetti gravy cooking contest takes home Grand Champion bragging rights as well as a $1,500 check.

Festival attendees can also participate in the judging by stopping by the People’s Choice tent. The six finalists from last year each will compete for your vote.

The Ransons have witnessed a lot at the festival — including the birth of a baby, a wedding, several anniversary celebrations and “many, many” marriage proposals. One of the best stories from the over the years is how Vickie first met Shackelford.

Vickie was at Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest close to 20 years ago watching the showmanship competition. At the time Shackelford was on a barbecue team and participating in the skit that night.

“I was in a cow costume, and this lady came up to me and said, ‘You must come compete at Italian Fest,'" Shackelford said.

Both Shackelford and Ranson joke that she was recruited for her showmanship. Little did Vickie know that Shackelford could cook a mean spaghetti gravy.

Jennifer Chandler is the Food & Dining reporter at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at jennifer.chandler@commercialappeal.com and you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @cookwjennifer.

If you go

Memphis Italian Festival

When: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Thursday-Saturday

Where: Marquette Park, 4946 Alrose Ave.

Tickets: $10 per day, available online and at the gate. Kids 10 and under are free.

Online: memphisitalianfestival.com