Sure, life imitates art. But what happens when life imitates TV?
On a recent evening, Bethany Hengsbach, a 31-year-old attorney, and Rob Petz, a 31-year-old computer consultant, squared off in a competition inspired by the popular Japanese cooking show, “Iron Chef,” which airs on Food Network.
The two friends and amateur cooks had developed a bit of a rivalry after years of entertaining and dinner parties, and this past June an idea took shape.
“Rob had just made an excellent meal for my parents, and a few days later Hengsbach cooked for my birthday,” says Petz’s wife, Amanda, “and I said that we’re so lucky to have such good cooks as friends we should have an `Iron Chef’ cookoff.”
After tossing the idea around, their tightly knit group of friends–many of whom have been close since college–a date was chosen and Amanda Petz started organizing.
The location was easy: Two of the couples lived in the same Lincoln Park building, one floor apart in identical condos, both equipped with spacious, modern kitchens. After consulting the friends, Amanda Petz chose four ingredients–monkfish, saffron, shiitake mushrooms and pomegranate–and established the rules:
– Each contestant will prepare a four-course meal of appetizer, salad, entree and dessert.
– One of the four ingredients must appear in each of the courses. The remaining ingredients must appear at least once.
– Tasters will enter through a back stairway to ensure anonymity for the cooks and their dishes.
– Beginning at 8 p.m., courses will be served back to back in 15-minute increments. (A game of Rock, Paper, Scissors established that Hengsbach would serve first, then Petz’s appetizer would go out at 8:15.)
– While advance preparation is allowed, neither cook could enter his or her competition kitchen until 6:30 p.m.
– Each contestant could appoint one assistant.
Let the game begin.
6:45 p.m.
In the upstairs kitchen, Hengsbach and her assistant, Frieda Gustafson, are waiting for their first course, a shiitake terrine, to come out of the oven. The kitchen is nearly spotless, and the two are sipping wine and chatting calmly about their long day. “I did all my shopping yesterday,” Hengsbach says, “and today we got up at 6 and started cooking.”
Chris Poindexter, who with his wife owns the downstairs condo, walks in dressed like an extra in a Bruce Lee movie, complete with a fake Fu Manchu mustache drooping down to his chest. As he wanders out to the back porch to mingle with the assembled tasters, Melissa Poindexter stares after him, commenting, “My husband does not know the meaning of moderation.”
The mood in the downstairs kitchen is one of determined fury. Music is pounding from a stereo system and every surface is covered with bowls and pots and pans and a thousand exotic items including a mortar and pestle containing homemade chili paste.
Petz is blanching zucchini strips for a ring mold while his assistant, Ted Haffner, is whittling radishes for garnish. “My idea is to plate each course with the flag from the country it’s from,” Petz says.
7:30 p.m.
Hengsbach hits a snag. “I put the terrine in 15 minutes too early so I had to turn the oven down to 200 to hold it until we’re ready for service,” she says.
7:45 p.m.
Hengsbach is saucing plates with caramelized onion and garlic pesto that Gustafson will then top with squares of terrine.
Meanwhile, Haffner is mincing shallots while Petz is struggling to open a small packet of saffron. “We’re starting to panic a little,” Petz admits, “and now I have to have one of those little American packaging moments.”
7:55 p.m.
Amanda Petz announces to her husband and Haffner: “I’m serving their first course in 5 minutes.”
Petz, who from the midst of the maelstrom is tearing open drawers searching for a can opener, lets out a distracted, “Fine, fine, fine!”
After a seeming eternity, the utensil is located, but neither Petz nor Haffner can get it to work.
“It’s lefty or something,” Petz shouts.
“No, no, I’m lefty and I can’t do it, either,” Haffner shouts back.
“I can’t believe this.”
8 p.m.
On the back porch of the upstairs condo, Amanda Petz, acting as emcee (or, in “Iron Chef” lingo, “fukisan”), passes out pens and scoring cards. The seven tasters toast the chefs and dig into Hengsbach’s terrine. Not knowing who prepared the dish, they discuss its merits briefly before the talk turns to more typical dinner party banter (“I think Pamela Anderson is losing it”).
8:24 p.m.
Hengsbach is plating her salad for the next course while downstairs, Petz and Haffner, already behind schedule, are laboring over their appetizer. “We’re really under the gun,” Petz says. “Our fish isn’t cooking the way we want, and we’re really slowing down.”
Amanda Petz sees her husband’s distress. “It’s like a battle of the sexes,” she says. “Everything is totally organized upstairs and it’s chaos down here.”
8:30 p.m.
Petz’s appetizer, monkfish on saffron rice, goes out. “This is magnificent,” says taster Samantha Farber, noting the radishes carved into the letters I.C.C., for “Iron Chef Chicago.” “I wasn’t expecting anything like this.”
9:10 p.m.
The tasters are finishing Hengsbach’s romaine salad when Haffner carries out Petz’s salade Lyonnaise. All pretense of anonymity, along with the schedule, has gone out the window.
9:30 p.m.
Hengsbach and Gustafson are dredging monkfish in flour for their entree.
The men are blanching asparagus and sauteing carrots.
On the porch, the discussion turns to the victory lap around the neighborhood that awaits the winning chef. “There’s a rickshaw coming?” asks taster Doug Basch incredulously. “This is what happens when people don’t have children.”
9:50 p.m.
Ten p.m. approaches, the hour the event was supposed to finish, and the tasters are only now tucking in to their first entree, Hengsbach’s sauteed monkfish with almond pesto. Taster John Volk is pouring the fifth of an eight-glass wine flight he prepared in consultation with an expert at Sam’s Wines & Spirits. Moods are soaring.
“Is anyone else writing obscene things on their score cards?” asks taster Lesley Milbury. “They should never have given us these pens.”
10:05 p.m.
With Radiohead exploding from the stereo, Petz is unrolling mucilaginous wads of cawl fat in which he’ll swaddle stuffed monkfish bundles. “I have a backache, my neck is broken and I’m running way late,” he says. “But apart from that, I’m great.”
10:20 p.m.
Neighbors show up, drawn by the laughter and wonderful aromas, and tasters wander through both kitchens with the random abandon of free-range chickens, and wonder what’s become of Petz’s entree.
10:59 p.m.
Petz finally serves his monkfish bundles, and there is agreement that they are spectacular, resting on beds of mushrooms in thatches of asparagus spears.
11:35 p.m.
Hengsbach serves dessert, an intended trio of ice creams that became a duet when one refused to freeze.
Petz and Haffner are wrestling their quenelles of pomegranate tapioca with chocolate mousse, and the mousse is fighting back. “We had nice peaks with the egg whites, but when I added the chocolate the air just ran out of it,” says Petz, exasperated. “We knew this was plagued from the start.”
“Dude,” counsels Haffner, “just get it done and don’t lose because of a dessert.”
Petz, his spirits buoyed by the prospect of finishing, says, “You know what the best thing is about all this? Boys.”
“Yeah,” says Haffner, “boys beating girls.”
11:47 p.m.
Petz serves his dessert and Volk pours one last glass of wine. The tasters are sated, the competitors exhausted.
11:55 p.m.
Hengsbach and Gustafson are collapsed on sofas while Amanda Petz tallies the score cards.
12:30 a.m.
Everyone gathers downstairs and the two competitors stand. As the sweeping theme music from “Iron Chef” fills the room, taster Terri Basch takes the results from Amanda Petz. By a margin of just one point, Petz is declared “Iron Chef Chicago.” The two competitors embrace and are herded outside into their waiting bicycle rickshaw. As they are driven off into the the evening, the party heads back upstairs for karaoke.
The night is just beginning.
– – –
Competing menus
Hengsbach’s menu
Baby spinach and shiitake terrine with caramelized garlic-basil sauce and a balsamic vinegar reduction
2001 Caymus Conundrum
Salad of romaine, ruby red grapefruit, Roquefort and walnuts in a pomegranate-port vinaigrette
2002 Nautilus Sauvignon Blanc
Sauteed monkfish with almond pesto
1999 Schoffit Harth Vineyard Riesling
Saffron honey and nougat ice creams
Chambers muscat
Petz’s menu
Thai monkfish on saffron rice in a zucchini envelope
2001 Domaine Bott-Geyl Pinot Gris
Variation on classic salad Lyonnaise with monkfish croutons
1999 Negro Roero Arneis
Stuffed monkfish bundles in a vegetable bird’s nest
1999 Schoffit Harth Vineyard Riesling
Pomegranate tapioca with chocolate mousse, litchi and a pomegranate reduction
2002 Saracco Moscato
Variation on classic salad Lyonnaise with monkfish croutons
Preparation time: 35 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Look for pomegranate juice at Middle Eastern markets, Trader Joe’s, and specialty stores such as Fox & Obel. Adapted from a recipe by Rob Petz of Chicago.
1 cup pomegranate juice
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 red onion, sliced into rings
1/8 teaspoon saffron threads
2 tablespoons each: red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar
1 each, minced: clove garlic, shallot
1/4 teaspoon each: dry mustard, salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil plus 2 tablespoons for frying
1 fillet monkfish, about 10 ounces, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons honey mustard
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 package (10 ounces) mixed baby greens
4 eggs, poached
1. Pour pomegranate juice into medium saucepan; cook over medium heat until reduced to 1/3 cup, about 25 minutes. Heat butter in medium skillet. Add onion rings; cook, stirring often, until softened, 2 minutes. Sprinkle with saffron. Add 3 tablespoons of the reduced pomegranate syrup. Cook 2 minutes. Set aside.
2. Combine remaining reduced pomegranate syrup, vinegars, garlic, shallot, mustard, salt and pepper to taste. Whisk in 1/2 cup of the olive oil. Set aside.
3. Coat pieces of monkfish with honey mustard. Roll in bread crumbs. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in large skillet. Fry fish until crisp on one side, 3 minutes. Turn; fry until just cooked through, about 2 minutes. Drain on paper towel.
4. Make bed of greens on each of four plates. Carefully place a poached egg in center of each. Sprinkle each with reserved onions. Place fish pieces around egg. Pour dressing to taste over all.
Nutrition information per serving:
624 calories, 67% of calories from fat, 47 g fat, 10 g saturated fat, 250 mg cholesterol, 28 g carbohydrates, 23 g protein, 574 mg sodium, 2 g fiber
Salad of romaine, ruby red grapefruit, Roquefort and walnuts
Preparation time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Cooling time: 10 minutes
Yield: 6 servings
Bethany Hengsbach adapted this recipe from one served at the Magnolia Grill in Durham, N.C.
Vinaigrette:
1/2 cup each: cranberry juice, pomegranate juice, fresh squeezed or from concentrate
1/3 cup each: ruby port, freshly squeezed orange juice
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 shallots, minced
1 egg yolk, optional, see note
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4 cup safflower oil
2 tablespoons walnut oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
Salad:
1 package (10 ounces) romaine hearts, torn into pieces
2 ruby red grapefruit, peeled, separated into segments
3/4 cup Roquefort or other blue cheese, crumbled
3/4 cup walnuts, lightly toasted, see note
1. For vinaigrette, combine cranberry juice, pomegranate juice, port, orange juice and garlic in a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat to a boil; simmer over low heat until reduced to 1/3 cup, about 30 minutes.
2. Place the shallots in a medium bowl; pour the port reduction over. Let cool 10 minutes. Whisk in the egg yolk and red wine vinegar. Whisk in the oils until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. For salad, put romaine in large bowl. Add vinaigrette to taste; toss. Season with salt and pepper. Divide the romaine among 6 plates. Divide the grapefruit segments among the plates. Sprinkle with cheese and walnuts.
Note: To toast walnuts, heat a dry skillet over medium heat. Add walnuts. Cook, stirring, until lightly browned and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Also, this recipe uses raw egg yolk. Some cases of salmonella have been traced to raw eggs, although this is rare.
Nutrition information per serving:
384 calories, 64% of calories from fat, 27 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 13 mg cholesterol, 23 g carbohydrates, 9 g protein, 339 mg sodium, 6 g fiber
