These days, cooks aren’t just sharpening their knives to prepare food. Sometimes they’re doing it to compete against one another. Chicago regularly plays host to competitions that challenge cooks, seasoned and raw, to impress judges’ critical eyes and tickle their taste buds. Here is a play-by-play of two recent cook-offs.
Future Chefs
The judges were forgiving of Michael Landini’s scratchy voice. They considered that he was probably dog-tired as they judged his entry to the Future Chefs of America competition at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago (CHIC). Landini, after all, had attended prom the previous night.
This second-annual competition, which selects teenage cooks based on high-school transcripts and essays, resembles an episode of “Iron Chef,” only the contestants have acne. And they’re not famous chefs (yet), but rather a motley mix of seniors with varied backgrounds, all sharing a common future: attendance at CHIC.
The eight kids selected for this year’s competition were given monogrammed chefs’ coats, white hats–and a whole chicken. They were asked to cut up the bird, then pair it with ingredients from a stocked pantry to make a salad or appetizer, as well as a main dish that incorporated a vegetable and starch. They had 90 minutes.
As the clock ticked, the teens created some impressive dishes. In Kitchen 1, Louis Dourlain of Addison mixed his own pasta to be layered into a basil crepe. In Kitchen 2, Christine Sathern of Arlington Heights–a bandage on her hand from an errant knife stroke a few minutes earlier–was stuffing tomatoes with spinach and cheese while her roasted red pepper sauce bubbled in a saucepan.
The young cooks moved from cutting boards to ovens, combining herbs with oils and pairing protein with wines they won’t be able to legally drink for another few years.
“This is great because I get to experience what I might be doing later in life,” said Lucia Lopez of Cicero, zesting an orange to garnish her fried chicken.
When the time expired, the students presented their meals to a trio of judges, briefly describing their dish and cooking technique before leaving the room.
“Fruit and Parmesan don’t go together,” said CHIC’s Marshall Shafkowitz after tasting a salad. Judge Cheryl Corrado repeatedly critiqued the students’ reluctance to salt dishes. And judge Darius Bright wondered where the fresh herbs were, but conceded that because the pile of greenery on the supply table wasn’t labeled, some students might not have been able to discern, say, parsley from mint.
Meanwhile, the students and their parents gathered in a nearby classroom. When the judges had scored each dish according to taste, presentation and technique, Sathern was announced the winner, earning her a $2,000 scholarship and a hug from Dad.
Future stars
In a vastly different setting–the massive National Restaurant Association show at cavernous McCormick Place–cooks of a different cloth competed for a slot on the American Culinary Federation’s (ACF) Team USA, the official representative team of the United States in major culinary competitions around the world.
Spectators huddled around windows at three cooking stations, where chefs from across the U.S. cooked under the critical eyes of ACF judges. “We’re looking for clean cooking technique, a high level of skill, organization through the process, sanitation, and no wasted food,” said chairman Steve Jilleba.
Competitor Christopher Desens, from the Racquet Club Ladue in St. Louis, coated loins of lamb in a spice blend before creating bite-sized shepherd’s pie. Drew Garms of The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., sent smoke into the rafters when he seared his scallops. Daryl Shular from the Art Institute of Atlanta pulled perfectly browned pheasant breasts from the oven.
On a little stage, four white-coated experts poked and prodded the artful salads and steaming plates of seafood, basing their scores on ingredient compatibility, portion size, creativity, flavor, texture and doneness.
Of the 17 contestants, four were nominated to join national Team USA: Joachim Buchner of Chevy Chase Club, Chevy Chase, Md.; Jamie Keating, Milliken and Co., LaGrange, Ga.; Daniel Scannell, Cherry Hills Country Club, Cherry Hills Village, Colo., and Patricia Nash, Westchester Country Club, Rye, N.Y. Others, including Shular, Desens and Garms, won spots on regional teams.
