Anywhere you go, springtime is high time for festivals, pagan or otherwise. Each culture has its own defining one, and in modern day Alaska, there may be none bigger than the first run of salmon.

Every year since he opened Copper River Seafoods in 1996, Scott Blake has put on an event celebrating the first run, and this year he did something different, opening it to the public for an event at 49th State Brewing Company. Four of the top chefs in Alaska set up in the banquet room, each of them eager to ply their take on the fattiest and oiliest kings they’ll see all summer.

“It’s gotten to be (a religious event). It’s an exciting time; it marks the spring time, the season when we all go out and make our living,” Blake said. “It’s a pretty important part of our culture.”

For the 23rd straight year, Margy Johnson, better known as the ‘Mermaid of Cordova’, and more officially on her resumé, a former mayor of Cordova, was on hand, decked out in a colorful dress with tiara and scepter to boot.

“I’ve been here since it started in 1996, and before that I’d go up and down the west coast with a fish in my hand promoting salmon,” Johnson said, before politely agreeing to have her photo taken next to the 35-pound king salmon, valued at $1,000 that was the grand door prize at Saturday’s event. “What I’ve noticed most is that the recipes here have changed so much. There’s salmon sushi that’s absolutely fabulous and salmon tacos.”

Both of those dishes were the handiwork of 49th State chefs Thomas Chapman and Daniel Shier.

Posted up next to them was the table of Chef Jeremy Fike from Glacier Brewhouse, who drew plenty of attention applying his blowtorch to panfuls of his Cremé Brulee Copper River Sockeye Salmon.

“It’s really the first day of true salmon that’s fresh,” Fike said. “It’s the opener; the Holy Grail is the first day.”

Technically, Fike’s dish was made with king salmon, which always runs a few days ahead of the sockeye.

“This king salmon has all the Omega 3 fatty acids — it’s so big and oily and yummy,” Fike said. “It’s easy to undercook it or overcook it, so you’ve got to get it right in the middle.”

Westmark head chef Steven Davis and his ‘right-hand man’ chef Tim Stevens, presented one of their most popular menu items, ‘Pecan and Maple Crusted Copper River Sockeye with Mushroom Potato Hash’. They, too, had to substitute king for sockeye, which Davis said was somewhat surprising.

“It’s the content of the fat in the fish,’ Davis said. “When they’re coming in when the waters are cold you get that really good, high content of fat. The lower down the estuary, the fresher they will be.”

Of course, the running of the salmon precedes the even more lucrative running that follows.

“The kings are running the first week and the tourists are running right behind them,” Davis said. “For us, (tourist season) started about three or four days ago.”

Though the winter was relatively mild, the spring has been delayed in its coming, which, Blake said, contributed to the kings running ahead of the sockeye even more than usual.

“We’re just a little on the front side of the run and the kings come a little earlier,” Blake said. “Normally, the warmer the water, the fish come a little sooner. It’s all about the temperature of the water and the depth of the river. The later the spring, the later the fish.”