Iron Chef Cook Off!

Iron Chef Cook Off!

Location:

2400 Jefferson St
Torrance, CA 90510

Entertainment Value: Friends, Food, Fierce No Mercy Competition, Alcohol and Fun

Food Cost: $10 in the pot so the head chefs could go and hunt for ingredients

Don't let the fact that friends, alcohol, and parks fool you into thinking this is just recreation. Beneath the veneer of laughters, clinks from shot glasses, and delicious food, there is a firestorm brewing. The three head chefs, Chef Tony, Chef Gus, and Chef Roderick, all hope to lead their team to the glory of fine grilling--bbq at its highest aesthetic sizzle. On a fine Sunday afternoon at Wilson park, they've come to test their wits and prove their culinary skill. The mission? To make a three course entree based on the secret ingredient that is revealed only moments before the game starts.

Each entree wll be judged on three criterion:

1. Flavor/Taste

2. Presentation

3. How clever the secret ingredient has been integrated into the dish

Sweet Tea Vodka...Ohhh yeah~

Team Tony hustling and bustling with their mushroom burger

To make it even more interesting? Once the teams were given the secret ingredient, Floral Peppers, they are only given an hour and a half to shop for their ingredients on a $50 budget. They must be at their grilling stations within that time frame or else they would be penalized for their time grilling. Once the party have all arrived, we have the lightening round. This quirky part of Iron Chef is a way for each team to test their fitness in food preparation. At a head to head relay match, each team has to effectively complete a preparation challenge. In our cookout case, one member had to first successfully cut and quartz a pineapple in order for the second team member to proceed onto finely chopping onions, which then allowed for the final team member to squeeze enough lime juice to pass the designated mark on the cup. First place winners, Team Tony, received an extra 2 point advantage in judging marks. Second place winners, Team Gus, receive a 1 point advantage.

After the lightening round, teams receive an additional hour and a half to come up with three different entrees. Throughout this time, our faciliator, David, and our host, Orn, is monitoring the progress of each team, while chaos unleashes--organized chaos that is. We hear orders being barked from Team Roderick's group, cheese melting on propane burners, knives chomping down on spicy peppers, and salmon flying in the air. It was a brutal race against time, but we could see how hard each team member was working. Sweat dripping down on smokey grills, coals sizzling under the tongs clamping down on burger meat, bacon wrapped sausages, and chicken breasts, and feet shuffling around to get this and that all added to the excitement. 

Once time was up, amazingly all the teams finished on time, through sheer versatility and adrenaline induced shot calls, made possible from good teamwork and top notch leadership. Food tasting judges, Lackena, Johnny, a mystery judge, and yours truely sat down before nine varietated and orally seductive dishes.  Since a picture is worth a thousand words, we'll break down the product of their culinary endeavors... but before I do I plead a disclaimer!! I did not cook these so my descriptions are very limited. I'd like to encourage the judges to come forward and write their description on the comments section below. I apologize in advance if I lack the details in the formulation of the product that could fully describe food presented here. So in any case, here are their finalized products:   (Please don't forget to take a moment to fill out the survey poll to the left column of this blog after you are finished viewing the food)  


Team Gus:

Appetizer: Rasberry, blackberry, mango, strawberry fruit parfait; Second dish: Ceviche

Entree 2: Bacon wrapped sausage with green peppers with toasted bun

Entree 3: Hearty all American burger with melted jack cheese; bell peppers on the side

Team Tony:

Appetizer: Bacon Stuffed yellow peppers with....? glaze.. help me here Tony..

Appetizer 2:  salty and spicy salsa

Appetizer 2: Melted cheese dip with green and red bell cubes

Entree 2+3: Bell Peppers on top of bacon wrapped hotdog; Portabello mushroom with melted Jack cheese blended inside the meat 

Team Roderick:

Appetizer: Mango salsa

                                               

Entree 2: Chicken breast with green onions layered on top, siracha sauce dipping in yellow chilli cavity

Entree 3 + 4: bacon wrapped sausage with asparagus, grilled pinapple slice, and juicy burger with all the bacon, red onion, tomatos, lettuce in between

 So ladies and fellas, judge for yourself. We can tell you who won, but we don't want to biase you. Which team do you think deserved to take the prize of good food based on the pictures?