The national anthem was played by a brass band flanked by women in crawfish and alligator costumes. The plan for what followed was simple: “Cook some seafood. See what happens.”

Those were the words of Kyle Ogden as he waited for the action to get under way Saturday morning at the Great American Seafood Cook-Off in New Orleans. Ogden, the chef at Odette in Florence, Ala., was one of 13 chefs who had earned places to compete for the title of “King of American Seafood,” and for him the stakes arguably were just a little different than for the rest: He also was defending the title won for Alabama in 2023 by Chef Brody Olive of Voyagers in Orange Beach.

Back in May, Ogden, assisted by sous chef Taylor Bradley, won the Alabama Seafood Cook-Off with a dish titled “Spring Tide,” featuring a pompano filet with a crab and shrimp mousse and other elements. The win came with a $2,500 prize and the right to represent Alabama at the Great American Seafood Cook-Off.

In Alabama, Odgen competed against three other chefs. In Hall J of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, he was one in a field of 13. And thanks to the luck of the draw, the first challenge of the day would be keeping his focus through a long wait. Each team had an hour to prepare its dish, with staggered start times. He was to start 12th, meaning he and Bradley would watch others cook for hours before their turn came.

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Others would be waiting with them: The contingent on hand to support Ogden and Bradley included Ogden’s parents, Carl and Leslie Ogden; his wife Brittney and son Ellis; Odette owner Josh Quick, who said he’d been to GASCO twice before, as a competing chef in 2016 and “sous chef for my sous chef” in 2019; and Tyler Ross, co-owner of Wildwood Tavern in Florence. Olive was looking on too, in a more relaxed mode than in 2023. “It’s a little different this year,” he said. “I got to sleep in, get some breakfast.”

Ogden wasn’t bothered by the wait. He said he and Bradley have a tradition of drawing late starting places in competitions and had gone last in the Alabama Seafood Cook-Off. “I thought it was bad waiting on three others,” he said. He added: “I like going last, but I didn’t want 13. Twelve is the number I wanted.”

First to go were Charif Arabe with sous chef Latvius Stephens, representing Frank’s and Frank’s Outback in Pawleys Island, S.C. Just before their countdown started, Ogden walked over to exchange a fist bump with Arabe, whom he said he’d just met in New Orleans.

Arabe and Stephens, who already had a pot of water on the boil, got down to work on a meal built around a “rack of flounder,” featuring a croquette, some South Carolina blue crab and an elaborated prepared zucchini roulade that looked almost like a sushi roll.

Every 10 minutes or so, another team got down to business, the energy building. “I know some of y’all are riding the struggle bus,” teased master of ceremonies Gerald Gruenig, referring to an evidently epic pre-party the night before. “Some of y’all might be driving it.”

Gruenig and co-host Cory Bahr kept up a running commentary on the action, alternating with interviews of the chefs as they cooked. They had the spotlight firmly on Arabe as he plated his offering, delicately assembling his presentation as the timer behind him counted down the final 90 seconds.

“That was a pretty plate,” commented Ogden as the results were set before the judges. An hour into the event that was one down with a dozen rounds to come, and still around 90 minutes before Ogden could even get down to business.

At the state event in Orange Beach, he’d won with a dish titled “Spring Tide,” featuring a pompano filet with a crab and shrimp mousse. Speaking to AL.com afterward, he said he knew he was going to have to make some changes based on what fish and vegetables were in season. In New Orleans he said he’d switched from pompano to red snapper, and would be using summer squash instead of Gai Lan. He’s also changed the title to “Summer in the Shoals.”

The goal was to be true to a concept that featured “a lot of different textures, a lot of different flavors,” such as a pesto, a Fresno chili emulsion, and a version of the Italian sweet-and-sour sauce agrodolce made with local honey and balsamic vinegar.

He said he wanted his dish to represent something of the approach favored at Odette: “A lot of balance is something that we try to do with a lot of our dishes,” he said. “We try not to make anything too overtly heavy. We use a lot of vinegars, a lot of vinaigrettes and sauces like that. We tend to not do too many heavy cream-based or butter-based sauces here.”

When their time came, Ogden and Bradley got down to work with little fuss or fanfare, working on the mousse and pesto that would add so much color to their finished product. While they were at work, so was the competitor next to them, chef Rob Dumas, food science innovation coordinator and facility manager for the School of Food and Agriculture at the University of Maine. If there had been a crowd-pleaser award, Dumas might have gotten it: After finishing up his competition dish, he returned to his station and used his leftovers to prepare a skillet-full of buttery lobster and vegetables that he served to onlookers.

By that time, Ogden and Bradley were wrapping things up. With 18 minutes to go Bradley took a skillet of squash off the burner and the two of them walked it to a nearby warmer, no sense of panic or urgency in their pace. With 16 minutes to go, Bradley cleared their prep table. As the competition from Arkansas was plating their dish and presenting it to the judges, they moved all their final ingredients to the prep table and set out plates. Bradley brushed the stuffed snapper portions with butter from the skillet with the squash, and Ogden ferried them back to the warmer.

With eight minutes left, Ogden began spooning pesto onto the plates and the two of them painstakingly assembled their final presentation from there.

Bahr almost chided them for the lack of drama as he praised them for their command of the situation. “We ran it in the restaurant last weekend as a special,” said Ogden. “So we got plenty of reps.”

As Ogden made his presentation to the four hard-to-read judges, he made sure to mention that many of the vegetables he used had come from Kodachrome Gardens, a community garden in Florence that donates much of its produce to other nonprofit organizations.

The spotlight then moved to the final competitor, Mississippi’s representative, chef Erica Lipe of SoLa in Oxford. Many exotic ingredients had been mentioned throughout the day, but even so, hearing that her dish built around lane snapper had used “kudzu vinaigrette made with fermented watermelon juice” was something else.

In a sense, the odds against Ogden were steep. Alabama has won the Great American Seafood Cook-Off, which is presented by the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board and partner organizations including the Louisiana lieutenant governor’s office, twice before. Jim Smith, now owner-chef at The Hummingbird Way in Mobile, won in 2011, Olive in 2023. But only one state has ever won it twice in a row, and that’s Louisiana.

This wasn’t the year for an Alabama chef to match that elite feat. When Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser came to the stage for the announcement of the winners, Maine’s Dumas took third place. Lipe claimed second place for Mississippi. And a new Queen of American Seafood was named: Erin Miller of Urban Hearth in Cambridge, Mass. It was a repeat win for her: In 2022 she had become the first female chef crowed Queen of American Seafood at the cook-off.

Afterward, Ogden seemed untroubled. He didn’t have any basis for comment, he said, because he hadn’t yet had a chance to gather any feedback from the judges.

But he could take some comfort in knowing he’d pleased another important audience: The diners at Odette, who’d embraced “Summer in the Shoals” when it was served up the weekend before.

“We sold 60 of them,” said Quick.