A beaming Heidi Weaver of Diamond Lodge Wild Seafoods accepted the grand prize, plus a first place award in the smoked fish competition at the symphony's 2007 gala soirée at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art.

Hartley's Northwest Seafoods LLC of Woodland, Wash., placed first in the retail competition with a wild Alaskan halibut with fire-roasted vegetables and capers, and Seattle-based Norquest Seafoods placed first in the food service competition with soy-flavored caviar.

Hartley's, in business for just two years, also won the competition's People's Choice award in Anchorage and at an earlier event in Seattle, where entries were judged.

Bob Pawlowski, executive director of the Alaska Fisheries Development foundation, which organizes and hosts the annual event, said some 400 people turned out in Anchorage to sample 21 entries in the 2007 competition.

Top finishers in each category get plane tickets and space to showcase their products at the International Boston Seafood Show, to be held this year March 11-13.

“The overall economic impact has to be measured by the opportunities created by the small specialty processors to showcase their products at the International Boston Seafood Show, and for them to also have their products independently judged in a focus group that the symphony provides,” Pawlowski said.

Chuck Becker, director of the Alaska Export Assistance Center, samples soy-flavored caviar, an entry that won NorQuest Seafoods Inc. top honors in the Symphony of Seafood's food service competition.

Weaver already is marketing packages of cold-smoked halibut over the Internet and serves it to guests at two family-owned fishing lodges in the King Salmon area. While sockeye salmon is predominant at her processing facilities, the firm also processes about 20,000 pounds of halibut annually, she said.

Weaver said she started with a recipe her grandfather taught her and later developed her own. She has been selling the product on the Internet for about six months, she said.

Second place awards included Trident Seafoods' Redi Grilled Alaskan Salmon, for food service; Hartley's Wild Alaskan Halibut with blue cheese butter and hazelnut crust, for retail; and Diamond Lodge Smokehouse's salmon butter-garlic, for smoked.

Third place honors included Orca Bay Seafoods' MSC certified Wild Alaskan Salmon and Pollock Chowder, for food service; Ray's Yukon Salmon Delightful Dip by Boreal Fisheries, in retail; and Ray's Wild Yukon Salmon Original, also by Boreal Fisheries, in smoked.

Among the 21 sponsors of the event are NOAA Fisheries, the Alaska Crab Coalition, Alaska Air Cargo, Northern Air Cargo, Alaska Brewing Co., Orca Bay Seafoods, American Seafoods Group, Ocean Beauty Seafood, Trident Seafoods and the At-Sea Processors Association.