This year’s Junior Iron Chef Event was the fifth annual competition for middle and high school chefs and was sponsored by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County and Lake Grove Whole Foods Market.
This year was the second time around for some Seneca Middle School students. Eighth grade students combined teams and made a group of five: John Durkin, Dom Strebel, Andrew Battelli, Hunter Ziems, and seventh grader, Nick Strebel.
Overall, Seneca’s team, dubbed the “Super Fresh Breakfast Boyz,” won the Public Presentation award and were announced as first place winners, scoring a whopping 140 points, beating the second place team by 28 points.
The boys met a few times per week in the morning before school to practice their recipe. The guidelines were to make a breakfast meal that was limited to five ingredients, two of which needed to be USDA approved and they were not permitted to use meat.
Together, they created a delicious and nutritious recipe that included all essential nutrients. Each team member was responsible for one part of the dish, and ultimately combining them to create the perfect Guacamole Sunrise Stack.
All the teams in the first heat started at the top of the hour and had 60 minutes to plate 8 servings of their recipe. The chefs began to dice, shred, cut, peel and work on completing their recipe. Then, an obstacle, the Panini Press’ power goes off. This was the only kitchen equipment to cook the potatoes, the base of our dish and was one of the two kitchen appliances that we were provided to cook on (a rule strictly enforced.) The stress of the clock ticking began to arise for the team as they were running out of time. However, the boys stayed calm and waited for the floor managers to get the Panini Press powered on. Inconveniently, it never did and they needed to improvise. Instead, they made a group decision to hold off on the fried eggs and use the skillet to finish the hash potatoes, a brilliant save.
The team executed an outstanding finished product by collaborating with one another and staying focused on their cooking skills.
They were judged on taste, presentation, healthy choices, USDA ingredients, communication, and visual aids. The spirit and support of Seneca’s faculty and staff were appreciated and recognized by the MC of the event as the crowd pleaser.