Savor this recipe collections shared by chefs at 25 “Best Restaurants” as voted by Cape Cod LIFE readers

Let’s just say we’ve been cooking this up for awhile.

Photo Courtesy of Ocean House Restaurant • Garlic Fried Calamari with Korean Chili Sauce

Photo Courtesy of Ocean House Restaurant • Garlic Fried Calamari with Korean Chili Sauce

To honor many of the Cape and Islands businesses who have won awards in CAPE COD LIFE’s annual Best of the Cape & Islands Readers’ Choice Awards over many years, we established a “Best of” Hall of Fame following the announcement of our 2015 awards. The requirement for enshrinement was both simple and extremely challenging: businesses that had received Gold or Silver awards in a minimum of five of our “Best of” contest years would gain entry into the Hall. Simple? If the business won a category—say “Best Lobster Roll” or “Best Romantic Restaurant”—on five separate occasions, boom, they’re in! Challenging? Any way you slice it, there’s a lot of care and effort involved in creating the kind of venue that would inspire reader-submitted votes of support for one year’s contest, let alone five!

Therefore, we wish heartfelt congratulations to all of these Hall of Fame inductees! Naturally, as is our wont, we then mulled over ideas about how we could best share this appetizing news with our readers—you know, the folks who cast all those votes. We decided we would host a meal, but not in the traditional sense at a local restaurant or reception hall, but rather . . . in the pages of our magazine. Thus, we reached out to all of the Hall of Fame inductees whose businesses involve preparing delicious food—restaurants, bakeries, B&Bs, you name it—and asked if they would share with us one recipe each. The response was amazing, and included recipes for many great appetizers and entrées, coffee drinks, desserts and cocktails.

Readers, we hope you enjoy the 25 different recipes presented on the following pages—and if you try them at home, let us know how it went by sending a photo or note (e.g. Here we are “cleaning up” Captain Linnell House’s Skaket Mess!). Businesses, if your recipes appear on the following pages, congrats again, and thank you for participating; if they do not, consider making a reservation for 2017. We’re thinking of making this an annual tradition.