Pekin’s Iron Chef team takes second place

Pekin’s Iron Chef team earned second last Friday in the Iron Chef competition held at Indian Hills.

The theme for this competition was “Spring Surprise.” The teams were able to choose their appetizer as long as it was a salad. The main course was a mystery basket of surprise ingredients with either pork tenderloin or chicken thighs as the protein. The dessert was a filled cake of the team’s choice.

Andrea Hoy made Pekin’s appetizer, warm kale and spinach salad. This was made with arugula microgreens that were grown in the Pekin FFA greenhouses, radishes, and strawberries; and then topped with a spiced honey and balsamic mint dressing over sourdough toast with whipped feta. One judge called this the best dish of the entire event.

Grant Goudy, Lilian Buie, and Tayler McCreedy were in charge of making the main course. From their mystery basket of ingredients, they created herb rubbed pork loin, bacon wrapped asparagus with parmesan cream cheese filling, and parmesan risotto with spring peas.

For dessert, Haylea Oostra and Mackinzie Vannoy made vanilla cake with raspberry/strawberry filling, white chocolate cream cheese filling, and vanilla buttercream frosting.