The Iron Chef Pizza Challenge

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.

Wild for Olives & Sexy Scallions

While taking care of some JeremyCook’s business, I visited Todd English’s Wild Olives, which recently opened up here in Boca Raton. For those of you who are not familiar with Todd English, he is a well-known chef and restauranteur. You might have seen him on Iron Chef a while ago when he made a Mozzarella Balloon. (he’s also been on Top Chef and stars on his own PBS program called “Food Trip with Todd English”)  His first restaurant, Olives, (he now has close to 20 around the country) is located in the Boston area and is widely known for its hearty Italian cuisine. Todd is also renowned for his famous thin flat bread’s. Ok,  back to the “business trip”,  I had met with Rich Leadbetter (Executive Chef at Wild Olives) to discuss writing a blog and possibly shooting a Cookisode with him (stay tuned thats coming soon).  What I didn’t expect was that he asked me if I would be interested in working at the restaurant, and without any hesitation I jumped at the offer.  Although my internship at Stonebridge County Club has been a great experience which I will carry with me forever, it was time to move on and try something new and different. As you all know my plan is to one day open my own restaurant so this was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.