For the past week, dozens of chefs, home cooks, hunters and fishermen have hiked, driven and dropped lines all over the Island to forage ingredients for the fifth annual Local Wild Food Challenge, held Monday at the Rod and Gun Club.

But Quinlan Slavin, 7, didn’t have to go far.

“I just went to my grandma’s house,” he said on Monday, wearing a forest green cooking apron tied twice around his waist. “I picked Russian olives and grapes and got the honey for my grape sauce there.”

Tyler Gibson won the grand prize for his dish called Around the Island, which included scallops and Farm Institute bacon. — Ivy Ashe

Quinlan was one of five children to enter the kids’ competition this year. “I made pork belly with a Russian olive and grape sauce that had a pea shoot salad with a Russian olive dressing,” he said. He also made a purple potato scallion galette. Quinlan’s father, Sean, stood close by as he cooked the dish, but didn’t offer any assistance. “He made it all on his own,” Mr. Slavin said.

“I tried it. It was actually really good,” Mr. Slavin continued. “The pork belly was out of this world.” Quinlan smiled.

Quinlan’s father wasn’t the only one who enjoyed his pork belly plate. The kids’ competition judges, caterer and event planner V. Jaime Hamlin and Alchemy head chef Craig Decker, liked it too, enough to give Quinlan the prize for runner up in the kids’ division.

“I’m thrilled for the kids,” said Ms. Hamlin. “They’re making these really incredible dishes. It’s really impressive and they all have sweet stories to tell of how their dishes were made.”

The story element is required for both kids and adults submitting a dish.

More than 30 adults entered the challenge this year, keeping the three adult judges very busy – and full.

Tyler Gibson, landscaper, stone mason, private cook and last year’s first runner up, took home this year’s grand prize: a day cruise to Nantucket aboard a yacht catered by Soigne and Bill and Sarah Manson, the New Zealanders who started the event and brought it to Martha’s Vineyard in 2010.

Mr. Gibson took home a handful of other prizes, including a handcrafted chopping board from Krug and Ryan Co., one of the event’s sponsors.

Clara Athearn won the kids' challenge for her dish, false albacore encrusted with hazelnuts. — Jeanna Shepard

Mr. Gibson called his grand prize dish Around the Island. It included fish, oysters, scallops, clams, Jerusalem artichokes, Mermaid Farm dairy, Farm Institute bacon, pea shoots and watercress from the beach.

“I’ll be back next year,” Mr. Gibson said after winning. But next year he’ll be sitting at the judges table, as the event invites the winner to serve on the judges panel for the next competition.

This year’s judges were Juli Vanderhoop, owner of Orange Peel Bakery in Aquinnah; chef Albert Lattanzi, fisherman and forager; and last year’s grand prize winner, Everett Whiting of Local Smoke.

Dipping a fried minnow in watercress garlic aioli, Ms. Vanderhoop crunched the tiny fried fish in her mouth, smiled, and wrote down numbers on her judge scorecard. “We haven’t tasted anything we didn’t like,” she said.

As the afternoon went on, the tasting plates on the judges table piled up. Once the judges tasted a dish, it was then moved to the tasting table, where it became fair game to any of the 200 to 250 guests in attendance.

“We do this event all over the world,” Mr. Manson, who is also a private chef on the Vineyard, told the Gazette.

“Here on Martha’s Vineyard, over the past couple of years, the Local Wild Food Challenge has rolled and expanded to become what you see here today – a community getting together after being encouraged to get out there and forage and eat food, and not just food but natural food, nothing processed,” he said. “I love this dynamic from the community. What you see here is not just people from one town. There are people from all towns here today. I enjoy seeing that, especially in this season.”

First runner up was given to Doug Werther for a dish he called Derby Slam: beach plum, striped bass, bluefish and bonito.

Dan and Meeghan Athearn were second runner up for their roasted maple glazed Canada goose with hazelnuts, Chilmark maple syrup and pears.

Foraging must run in the family. Their eight-year-old daughter, Clara, won the grand prize for the kids category, earning herself a free cooking class with Jan Buhrman and taking home Not Your Sugar Mamas chocolate, a hat and gift cards.

Clara made false albacore encrusted with hazelnuts and dehydrated seed pickles. She served it with a salad of wild greens with hazelnuts and Russian olives. When the judges named her the grand prize winner, she gasped in disbelief. “I didn’t think I would win,” she said.

After accepting her prizes, Clara shook the hand of her friend, Quinlan. “Good job,” she said.

“Good job,” Quinlan responded.

Photo gallery: Fifth Annual Local Wild Food Challenge.

Other award categories at the Wild Food Challenge were Best Dessert (Patricia Albert and Jerry Messman’s vegan pumpkin and honey ice cream), Best on the Wing (Michelle Cowart’s roasted duck breast with duck confit), Best from the Land (Kayla Leonard and Caitlin Crossland’s wild brunch), Best from the Water (Deborah Webb’s bonito dish), Best Story (Bobbie McLaughlin and J.P. Shepard’s rabbit confit), Best Use of Local Ingredient (Hayley Knowlton’s Quansoo mole crab bisque with road kill venison), Best Effort (Stephan Pond’s venison nine ways), Wildest Ingredient (Mary Jo Goodrich and Vicky Divoll's sweet maple leaf tempura) and the Caroline Johnstone Award (Jacqueline Foster’s venison back strap dish).