Culinary students learned valuable lessons in the Iron Chef-style competition when they tried to beat the clock in their attempts at making tempting meals that got judges to award their dishes top prizes.
It was restaurant-style food preparation when these students entered the kitchens at Homewood-Flossmoor High School, donned chef’s jackets, lined up their ingredients and got the go-ahead to start cooking recipes that they created themselves.
“We’ve had many surprises. The students wow us every year with their creativity and their ideas,” said teacher Jontil Grubbs. The Iron Chef-style competition is the final fall and spring semester cooking assignment for students in the 14 culinary sections. Culinary also has a burger competition in the spring semester.
Day One
This is prep day. The assignment is to make breakfast or lunch featuring an appetizer and entrée.
One team rethought the menu. On round one, the team had interesting ideas, but it was decided it would require a higher skill set.
Another team needed to marinate its meat longer than class time allowed. Teacher Grubbs agreed to continue stewing the meat. She found that after cooking for a while the meat was too salty.
She added more broth and then a potato to try and cut the salt. In the end, judges said the dish wasn’t very flavorful.
the Iron Chef-inspired competition. (Marilyn Thomas/H-F Chronicle)
Day Two
It’s was time to cook. The room started filling with aromas from the different menus.
The Iron Chef-style competition is part of a student’s final grade. The commercial kitchen has six kitchens serving teams of three and four students. Overhead, digital clocks count down the allotted 45 minutes.
Students can make any type of scrumptious meal. The menus included a jerk chicken dish served in a half pineapple over a bed of rice. Birria tacos served with salsa. Garlic penne pasta with garlic bread. French toast with fried chicken and a strawberry/granola parfait. Jambalaya with an artichoke dip.
Each person on a team has a job to do to bring their meal to fruition, whether it’s chopping onions, frying the meat, or working on the presentation. The meal has to be perfect all-around. The judges and teachers are grading on visual appeal, degree of doneness, seasoning and flavor. Teachers are also watching time management.
Throughout the kitchen there was nervous tension. “It’s not working right!” on student told her team. “Watch the sauce, the sauce,” another called out to his teammate at the stove.
Top Chef
Culinary students in every class participate in Iron Chef-style competition. The winner in the first period Advanced Culinary class made a dish of penne pasta with red and green peppers in a creamy sauce. It was topped with seasoned chicken and served with a spinach and cheese appetizer with chips.
Taste tester teacher Anna Santacaterina thought the dish was restaurant quality. She really enjoyed the flavor of the chicken breast.
“We used great seasoning that combined to make great flavor,” said sophomore Sanah Akintelu, one of four students on the team. The recipe called for chicken, jerk chicken base, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne and black pepper, salt. “We needed to balance it because some people have lower spice tolerances,” she said.
Learning Experience
So, what do you do when the hamburger meat you intended to use is spoiled? One team faced that problem. While other teams are busy cooking, they had to rethink their recipe after their teacher gave them chicken breast she had on hand. She thought an aioli sauce would help the meal. The team had trouble regrouping and were late in trying to meet the deadline.
Judges took one bite of the jerk chicken and decided it was too spicy. The meat had been marinading for 36 hours in a mix of habanero peppers, a hot pepper on the market.
“We had to make marinade from scratch so, but it’s good, I thought ‘cause it’s like a jerk meal,” said Chef Melah Winston.
After the session was over, Chef Ayron Stewart, a junior, said, “I think we did well, but we could have used our time more wisely to do both the mozzarella sticks and the chicken at the same time.”
Chef Aiyana Ocampo was disappointed in the end. “I think we weren’t as prepared as we thought we were, and I don’t think we had enough time, and I don’t think we prioritized right.”
All good points to learn from.
