Being President of my High School's Culinary Club, I have to plan different events for each meeting. It could involve a chef doing a demonstration or a hand’s on activity the club does together. The chef that was scheduled for The February meeting canceled close to last minute, so Ryan (Vice-president) and I were stuck with nothing. As I sat in class I thought of what a great idea it would be to show the club members how to make pizza dough, sauce and then have a pizza party afterwards. To make a long story short the idea evolved into the Iron Chef Pizza Competition. I began making announcements around school and posting flyers like crazy, hoping it wouldn’t be to late and that people would show up.
The competition was based on creativity, texture, flavor and appearance. Due to time restraints, my friends ( Ryan, Paula, Aviva, and Jordan) and I had prepared the pizza dough the day before. The club would be providing the pizza sauce along with some basic topping, mozzarella, olives, pepperoni, and onions. As a competitor you could bring whatever additional ingredients you would like to use. At last competition day had arrived and I had no clue what the turn out was going to be. Luckily we had a great turnout, we had close to thirty participants!
There were either one or two man teams allowed. A lot of the kids brought their own ingredients and recipes. Each team was labeled by a letter and placed at a cutting board. The panel of guest judges consisted of the academy coordinator and her husband, a Spanish teacher and the night school principal. The rules and directions were explained to the kids and then… A La Cuisine!!!!! The teams were off creating some of the most interesting pizza’s I have ever seen!!! There was a taco pizza, fruit pizza, a blue cheese and chocolate pizza (the kids who made that one didn’t feel so well), and a potato pizza! The kids had a choice to bake their pizza on a screen (which made their pizza’s nice and crunchy) or on a sheet pan.
The Judges Deliberate
Once the judging was completed the judges and I tallied up the scores. I rolled out the prize. Third place was tied between the taco pizza and a pesto with sun-dried tomato pizza. Third place received pizza cutters. Second place went to the pesto with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella pizza. They received two gift certificates, one to Cold Stone’s and the other to iTunes. Finally, first place went to Brett Bombwell and Tyranny Moon.
The Winning Pizza
The Winners
They created a delectable pizza that had blue cheese and cream cheese covered in an apricot glaze and topped with prosciutto. First place received a Sony DVD player and iTunes gift card. All of the competitors had a blast. Each pizza was unique and creative and I want to thank everyone that participated. Since this competition went over so great I’m thinking of having another…. how do burgers sound? Keep on cooking
No comments:
Post a Comment