MPCHS culinary arts students prepare to defend their 'Iron Chef' crown

By SALLY Y. HAYES

Mt. Pleasant News

Pork in an appetizer, pork in an entrée and pork in a dessert is the challenge for teams of six high school students that will have two hours to prepare the three dishes for judging Friday morning at the Southeastern Iowa Iron Chef Competition at Indian Hills Community College.

Mt. Pleasant Community High School?s culinary department, run by Marjorie Beckman, is sending two teams this year, in hopes of reclaiming first place. Last year the Panthers took the top spot in the competition.

?We won the very first Iron Chef last year, so we?re kind of hoping to repeat that,? said Beckman.

Six other high schools are each sending one team to compete. Mediapolis, Burlington, Davis County, Eddyville, Ottumwa and Ft. Madison going to be attempting to give the Panthers a run for their money.

While the students will only have two hours to make the dishes at the competition, they have been preparing for the competition for more than two months.

The students will have two hours to measure ingredients, cook the food and dish up the plates at the competition held at Hot Production Lab at Indian Hills Community College Friday morning. The Studio will house the judging portion of the competition beginning at 11:30 a.m.

?We?ll have 15 minutes to set up the work area once we?re over there. And 15 minutes to actually do some prepping work and measuring, but they can?t start cooking until we are told, ?Go!? and then we have two hours,? explained Beckman.

There are two stages in which the students will vie for 100 possible points.

The kitchen evaluation totals 40 points ? 10 points for sanitation and food handling, 10 points for organization and teamwork, 10 points for ingredient utilization and 10 points for timing and work flow.

The service and tasting evaluation will be for the remaining 60 points. During this evaluation students will present their dishes to each of the five judges. Ten points are up for grabs in the presentation and service category, five for portion size, 10 for menu and ingredient compatibility, 15 for creativity and 20 points for flavor, taste, texture and doneness.

Beckman invited three close friends and News staff to taste one team?s dishes for lunch Tuesday. Nobody walked away hungry. Danielle Gersema, Deana Panos, Ali Mills, Daniel Ruth, Jena Holtkamp and Chelsea Sammons prepared their competition dishes. Warm pork and raspberry salad was the appetizer, followed by Adobo (a Filipino style pork) served on a rice boat with steamed peppers and snow peas and topped off with chocolate pork cake served with whipped cream and raspberry sauce for dessert.

?This is the fifth time we?ve made it,? stated Mills, wearing a white chef?s jacket as all of the students do. ?It took us a long time to decide on which (recipes) to use.?

The group eventually narrowed the recipes down. ?We went through multiple cookbooks looking for stuff that seemed different,? said Ruth, as he brought out plates of the Adobo. The group wanted a ?different flavor? he explained.

?Everything was fabulous!? Mary Elgar, Beckman?s friend and taste tester, told the students.

The other team competing is made up of students from Beckman?s Culinary III class, Cody Remington, Zack Detrick, Chris Parker, Florencia Leunis, Matt Whaley and Ryan Schenk. On Friday they will be making a cranberry and apricot filled pork loin with caramelized bacon ice cream for dessert.

The two groups began selecting recipes and trying to find three dishes that would compliment each other two months ago when they learned that pork was the ingredient to be used in each dish.

?The pork producers have been helpful, they gave us a donation during the month of October since it was pork month. And that money went to buying supplies,? Beckman said. She also explained that when it is seasonally available the group uses local produce.

Beckman hopes that her students will stay involved in culinary arts after graduation, ?I had three (students) last year that are at Indian Hills and they?re doing quite well over there.? She believes that some of her current students are planning on pursuing culinary degrees after leaving MPCHS.

Results from tomorrow?s competition will be printed in an issue of next week?s Mt. Pleasant News along with some of the hopefully winning recipes used by the students.