The teen version of Bravo’s Top Chef pitted two teams of public school teens against each other in a live timed culinary competition in the New York Institute of Technology’s auditorium.
Hosted by George Duran, star of TLC’s Ultimate Cake Off, the event was part of a larger fundraiser for the nutrition and culinary non profit Family Cook Productions featuring a strolling dinner, cocktails, and a silent auction.
Dressed in purple t-shirts, Team Egypt hustled to create rutabaga soup with cumin and stuffed grape leaves. Across the stage, orange clad Team Japan prepared cod with tomato, Shitake mushrooms and fennel with chive rice balls and edible flowers. Adding a twist to the competition, each team needed to incorporate a surprise ingredient into their dish − sorrel. Neither team was familiar with sorrel and they were advised to taste the ingredient to determine how best to incorporate it into their dishes.
A panel of judges including Vandaag Executive Chef, Philip Kirschen-Clark and former First Lady of New York Michelle Paige Patterson reviewed the dishes while the enthusiastic audience texted their votes to determine a winner. Despite Team Egypt’s strong knife skills, Team Japan overwhelmingly won the competition.
George Duran interviewed each teen about their food preferences and how the program has helped them. Meg Hamby from Laurel, DE said that despite her tough upbringing in foster care, she has learned how to eat healthier and not feed her son so much fast food. Team Egypt’s captain, Molly Bhuiyan, said diabetes runs in her family and she is motivated to eat better and stay healthy.
Teen Battle Chef performs culinary “showdowns” at Whole Foods and has competed at NYChilifest at Chelsea Market. Find Teen Battle Chef on Facebook and go see them live because these teens have so much enthusiasm for the program you can’t help but cheer them on.
17. May 2011 at 9:26 pm
Awesome! I love seeing kids cooking-
Velva
P.S. I have reservations at Prune. I will let you know if I think it is over-hyped. I hope not.