Tartan update #2: Cuisine Competition

[Published April 9, 2010]

Rec-IM’s biggest (and yummiest) tournament yet went down on Friday. No, not chess. Not racquetball. Not Super Smash Brothers, either. Bigger than all of the above, and promising to become semi-annual, was the Iron Chef competition.

“I was trying to think of a tournament that non-athletic people could do,” said Alyssa Williamson, recreational coordinator for Rec-IM, who was the mastermind behind Gordon’s Iron Chef tourney. “Recreational things don’t have to be sports.”

Williamson was worried people wouldn’t think to compete because the event was too new, but 13 teams proved her wrong with surprising and scrumptious dishes featuring the secret ingredient, apples, which was announced Thursday night.

The table was laden with everything from salad to strudel to hand-spun sugar. Now the five judges – Austin Bentson (’11), Steven Myhren (’11), Alyssa Baxter (’11), Catherine Damiani (’10), and Williamson (’11) – were faced with the task of trying all the dishes and assigning them scores based on creativity, taste, presentation, and use of the secret ingredient.

“To make apples in a new way is not easy,” said Lydia Luse, ’10, who teamed up with her longtime summer cooking partner Caitlin Snyder, ’10, to make Graduation pie (apples, pears and blueberries). “I was hoping for cilantro, beets, ginger, anchovies – something unexpected and strange.” Luse’s team, Gourmet Graduates, scored second place in the presentation category with their five miniature Grad pies.

“It was fun to collaborate and improvise with what we had,” said Lindsay Locke, ’10, of The Gedney Girls (also Virginia Locke, ’12, and Jessica Kane, ‘11). “It’s scary for a minute not knowing how it will turn out,” said Locke. “But I’d do it again.” The Gedney Girls won best taste, second best use of the secret ingredient, and second place overall with their mountain of stuffed French toast.

Flay-Cora (Fred DiStefano, ‘10, Corrie Hopley, ‘11, and Courtney Prall, ‘11) took first prize with apple and butternut squash soup and turkey apple Brie paninis – comfort food for a fall-like spring day, as the team told judges when they delivered the dish.

Gedney Girls took second prize, and Vitamin E took third with apple chicken hash with won ton chips.

Williamson said to look forward to Iron Chef: round two next fall.