The Shake Up

I can barely plan a meal in a week, let alone CREATE a meal in thirty minutes. Add in mandatory secret ingredients and the stress of competition, and you have completely lost me.

I’m not sure if great cooks find cooking competitions as interesting as cook-challenged individuals such as myself do, but while watching my first Cast-Iron Chef competition at the Fair today, I was in utter culinary amazement.

Move over Batman and Robin, I found two new heroes during my meandering in South Wing B: Jeff Roszkowski, a culinary student at Sullivan University and Michael Riggs, Executive Chef and Associate Professor of Culinary Arts at Bowling Green Technical College.

The ticking LED timer and shiny appliances from the Gourmet Garden Stage caught my attention, so I sat in the gallery to see what all the fuss was about. I watched as two men, looking almost presidential in their white coats and checkered chef pants, cut, sautéed and julienned whatever that means fresh ingredients from Kentucky Proud farms.

Competition emcee Dean Corbett of Equus Restaurant and Jack’s Lounge in Louisville started the competition by explaining the rules. If you are not one of the 100 million viewers of the Food Network channel or a regular fairgoer, here’s a little rundown of the competition: two chefs are given 30 minutes to create an entrée from three ingredients that are kept secret until the timer has began. Corbett explained this to the audience. I felt at home surveying the faces around me that looked just as baffled as I was.

“How are they going to know what to make? They don’t have a recipe? Or a measuring cup? OR A MICROWAVE?!”

To my complete shock and amazement, no horrified look of angst crossed the chef’s faces as the secret ingredients were revealed: ground beef, yellow squash, and mixed herbs. Instead, they seemed calm and the quick moving hands of the culinary artists went to work. The steam rose and skillets sizzled faster than I could even process that the competition had started.

I was bypassed by three lucky members in the crowd who were chosen to be judges. They all had good reason for landing their coveted place at the judges table. One petite blonde had traveled all the way from British Columbia, Canada. Another man was a cattle farmer donning the uniforming cowboy hat, blue jeans and all. And then there was Will. Host Corbett announced that “Willie T” had been to every Cast-Iron Chef Competition since the beginning of the Fair.

“I’ll let you be a judge if you promise to go see something else tomorrow,” Corbett told him.

The three hungry-eyed winners took their places.  The crowd answered beef trivia given by Corbett and received small prizes. One of which was an apron that was literally ripped from my grip by a polite grandmother who answered the question seconds before me. Considering I survive on Smart Ones frozen entrees and have no need for an apron, I let it slide. The counter continued to tick as the two calm cooks carried on.

Finally it was time for the taste test. I watched in a rather envious state as the “overnight Bobby Flay’s” scored each dish. The results were tallied. The winner was announced: Congrats Jeff Roszkowski. The nine-month long Sullivan University student had won against the seasoned Mike Riggs. I am always a sucker for the underdog, but in this case I felt as if both chefs’ needed a plaque and blue ribbon; If not for culinary skills, then for quick thinking under pressure skills, one that I inevitably lack.

Eager to learn, I spoke with the chefs afterward. However, considering my extreme lack of training in the culinary department, I chose to stick with straight forward questions: “How long have you been a chef? What were your thoughts on the ingredients?”  My fears from watching “Hell’s Kitchen” seemed completely unfounded after both chefs graciously answered my amateur questions and thanked me for coming.

Coming from a girl who recently burned hamburger helper, I have to say I have an immense respect for anyone in the culinary field. They work with food like a painter works with a brush. And thank God for that, because the domestically-challenged of the world, such as me, need their inspiration.