Students compete for Iron Chef title

Five teams, each made of three students and a CDS chef, participated in the event.

By Emily Roman

Published Feb. 22, 2008

Five teams chopped, diced, juiced and ground their way through various foods until their hands turned raw Thursday at Brady Commons.

Each team tried to cook their way to victory and claim the title of Iron Chef Mizzou ‘08 at an event co-sponsored by the Residence Halls Association and Campus Dining Services.

As it is RHA Week, the association wanted to create a big event leading up to the upcoming elections for RHA president and vice president, outgoing RHA President Greg Davis said.

“It helps get the word out about RHA in general,” Davis said. “As well as the elections.”

Davis, who hopes to make this an annual event, said it was the popularity of the Food Network program “Iron Chef” that prompted the assembly of this event last year. The association was “looking for a large event to get the word out about RHA Week,” Davis said.

RHA figured that since the residents pay an annual fee to live in residence halls, they should put something fun together for the students, RHA External Committee Chair Laura Handrahan said.

Handrahan said the event allowed RHA to interact with another group on campus.

“We are trying to get residents involved to celebrate RHA Week,” she said.

Each team included a CDS chef and three students, one of whom was required to be a resident living in a residence hall. The teams were given one hour to prepare at least two dishes that featured one main ingredient.

This year’s special ingredient was a far cry from last year’s potatoes. Citrus was the selected ingredient, and the competition featured fruits such as cura cura oranges, blood oranges, Persian limes, honey tangerines, key limes, ruby red grapefruit, navel oranges, lemons, kumquats, satsumas and saville oranges.

With equipment and food donated by CDS, the teams prepared food to be judged on taste, flavor, creativity and presentation.

Along with creating dishes, each team was able to give themselves a unique name. These names included Caribbean Jerks, Team Yum Yum, Tiger Thyme, Le Cordon Zou and Fantastic Four.

Along with food, RHA handed out free T-shirts and aprons sporting the Iron Chef Mizzou ‘08 logo.

“Free t-shirts, that’s exactly why I came down,” attendee Sara Cox said.

Cox predicted the Caribbean Jerks would win.

“They know what they’re doing,” Cox said. “Let’s just put it that way.”

Sophomore and RHA member Steven James camped out in the Fantastic Four cheering section to watch a friend competing in the event.

Sophomore Eric Farthing said he heard about the event through a friend who is a member of RHA.

As well as being a fan of the show “Iron Chef,” Farthing said he loves to cook.

Campus Dining Services Executive Chef Eric Cartwright played host to the event for the second time.

“It’s great to be a part of it, working with RHA,” Cartwright said.

Cartwright said he was very happy with the turnout, especially considering the weather that swept through Columbia early Thursday.

After much deliberation, the three judges, using their taste buds and full stomachs, announced that Tiger Thyme was the contest winner. Caribbean Jerks were the runners-up.

Hotel and restaurant management majors and winners junior Lauren Hellmann, senior Adam Fishbein and junior Adam Stanek, along with Mark Twain Market sous chef Amy Smith, shook hands and posed for pictures with the “Mizzou golden” spatulas they received for winning. Along with the spatula, the sponsors awarded each winner a $50 gift certificate to Target.

“We all did a good job working together, we came up with great dishes, experimented, cooperated and we had a great sous chef,” Fishbein said.

He said his favorite dish the group prepared was the beef tenderloin.

“We thought ‘what can we do that is different from the rest?’” Fishbein said. “We took a risk with beef and came out on top.”

First-time judge Bill Provencher, who was once a sous chef at the university and is now the executive chef at the University Hospital and Clinics, said the event was “incredible.”

“It was so hard to judge,” Provencher said. “Everyone did such a great job.”

He said the beef tenderloin with the reduction sauce was his favorite dish.

“It was fantastic,” Provencher said. “It came down to the little things like presentation and flavor.”