Author: Riley Kimball
As part of last Thursday’s Earth Day celebrations, students faced off in Oxy’s first Organic Iron Chef competition, which was organized as a fundraiser by Food, Energy and Sustainability Team (F.E.A.S.T.) member Jeff Ross (sophomore).
The competition, which took place in the quad, was based on the Food Network’s popular television show “Iron Chef.” It pitted five teams against each other in a timed-cooking game that raised $120 for F.E.A.S.T and Well Fed, a student cooking organization.
“The goal was to get the word out and show people a pretty vivid demonstration of how delicious local, sustainable food can be, and what potential Well Fed has here in L.A.,” Ross said. “I’m hoping we can make this an annual, if not seasonal, event.”
Participant and F.E.A.S.T. member Tyler Morgan (sophomore) called the event a major success. “I am really glad Jeff Ross got it together to do something like this that not only gets people thinking about organic food but also provides awesome entertainment on campus,” he said.
The teams were given a little over an hour to fashion a meal that incorporated a mandatory special ingredient (a tradition taken from the television show): scallions cut from the F.E.A.S.T. garden. Each team used a variety of fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs from the garden and from the Sierra Madre Farmers’ Market.
At the conclusion of the allotted time, each team’s meals were judged in three categories: taste, presentation and originality. The panel of judges included track and field coaches Rob Bartlett and Tyler Yamaguchi, studio art professor Mary Beth Heffernan, economics professor Jim Whitney and Tucker Eason (sophomore).
The team awarded first prize for taste was comprised of Morgan, Elizabeth Kennedy and David Alpert (sophomores). Their meal consisted of pasta with grilled tomato, asparagus and green onion sprinkled with mozzarella and shaved almonds, crepes with a scrambled egg filling, scalloped potatoes and a dessert made of assorted fruit.
However, there was no overall winner of the competition, as judges announced each team as either winner or runner-up in at least one of three categories. The winners for presentation were Tara Daley (junior), Gabe Feinberg (junior), Sam Huie (senior), Adrienne Daniels (junior) and David Minguez (junior). A team consisting of Ross himself and Ethan Spiro (sophomore) won for originality. Onlookers enjoyed the leftovers at the conclusion of the competition.
Organic Iron Chef was an unprecedented Earth Day event on campus, said urban and environmental policy professor Mark Vallianatos, who organized all programming for the occasion. “I’ve been doing Earth Day events for nine or 10 years, and this is one of the best we’ve had,” he said.Participant David Alpert (sophomore) expressed enjoyment about his dual role at the event. “This was so fun. I got to just cook and eat delicious food all morning,” he said.
The event was given $700 by ASOC’s Renewable Energy and Sustainability Fund, a large portion of which was used to rent a portable kitchen so the competition could be held in the quad. The remainder of the money went toward ingredients for each team. Additional funding came from RHLS and Ross’ own Cookout Club.
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