Isaly's Chipped Chopped Ham usually hides between two slices of bread, but the lunchtime staple took the spotlight Tuesday as student chefs at the Pennsylvania Culinary Academy mixed it into new dishes and raced to win a $500 cookoff prize.
The students made it their key ingredient in pierogies, appetizers, filled dinner rolls and salads.
The Isaly's name itself has been lower-profile in recent times compared to a few decades ago, when Isaly's stores were in most Pittsburgh neighborhoods and shopping centers and youngsters lined up for Skyscraper ice cream cones.
Still, yesterday's second Great Chipped Chopped Ham Challenge at the Downtown culinary school marks Isaly's latest step on a gradual road to regrowth with new foods; new sales outlets at grocery, deli and convenience stores in four states; and expanded TV, online and print marketing campaigns.
"We don't have any great plans for world domination," said Tim Deily, who became president of Isaly's Inc. about a year ago after joining the company in 1999. "The focus is making sure our products are what our customers expect them to be."
Isaly's remains a family business, owned by the Deilys in Evans City, Butler County, instead of the Isalys in Oakland. Just four licensed, independently owned Isaly's stores remain, in the North Side and in Turtle Creek, West View and Washington.
And while Isaly's retains its solid image as a Pittsburgh brand, only one of its products is locally made -- ice cream packed by Reinhold Ice Cream Co. in the North Side.
The 30-odd pounds of ham used in yesterday's second Chipped Chopped Ham Challenge at the Downtown cooking school came from Al and John Inc., a meat processor in Paterson, N.J., contracted to follow the original Isaly's recipe. Barbecue sauces come from Punxsutawney, turkey and roast beef from Philadelphia and cheeses from Louisville, Ohio.
The Isaly's company has just three employees, not including Deily's father, Jay, who is phasing into retirement but still makes rounds to stores that carry Isaly's products.
Sales are growing at a modest 5 to 10 percent a year, said Deily, who won't give specific figures. The product lineup has expanded with a brown sugar ham introduced early this year, hickory smoked turkey breast last year and roast beef in 2005.
O'Hara-based Giant Eagle's expansion into Cleveland, Columbus and other parts of Ohio, plus West Virginia and Maryland, took the Isaly's name to customers there, and in fact the grocery chain carries Chipped Chopped Ham and Isaly's original BBQ Sauce in all 230 stores, spokesman Dick Roberts said.
Super Wal-Marts, IGAs and smaller chain and hundreds of independent stores in Pennsylvania and nearby states also stock Isaly's products.
"We estimate we sell enough chipped ham to make 18 to 20 million sandwiches a year," Deily said. Still, in the Pittsburgh area, "We would like to grow sales of our other items" besides ham, he said. "A lot of people don't know we have turkey."
Yesterday's event won't correct that. It was all about the ham.
The 17 student contestants spent up to $25 for ingredients, excluding the ham, and had 30 minutes to prepare four plates, three for judges, one for presentation. Based on use of ingredients, taste, nutrition and ease of preparation, three winners were awarded $500, $250 or $150 to their student accounts.
Casandra Vazquez took the top prize, for using the ham in her gringas (a type of quesadilla) with papaya and peach salsa.
Deily reimbursed the students for their expenses. Most, if not all, of the recipes will appear on Isaly's expanded Web site, at www.isalys.com.
Chef Jackie Price said the students enjoyed themselves. "It is interesting for them to take something so basic and be able to either really add ingredients to dress it up -- or play it off as a simple basic," she said.
Lindsay Jasionowski, 18, of Canton, Ohio, premade pierogi dough and spent her allotted half-hour filling pieces with saurkraut and ham or potatoes and ham.
"I am Polish, so I love my pierogies. You can fill them with anything," she said.
She has less of a connection to Isaly's ham. Before the competition, "I had never tried it," she said.
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