Although the weather — 43 degrees and wet — chased away many possible Hillborough Street Renaissance Festival goers, it didn’t seem to bother Aaron Vaughn of Green Planet Catering, who had his sleeves rolled up to his elbows as he chopped, mixed and sauted during the Iron Chef competition.
“I don’t mind [the cold]. We work in a hot kitchen, so it’s actually been nice,” he said.
The cold, rainy weather may have made things easier for the competition. The makeshift outdoor kitchens had no sinks or refrigerators, which should have made it tough to keep pots and pans clean and food at a safe temperature, but Mother Nature provided. The butter that was cold at the competition’s beginning was rock solid by the end of the first round.
“We’ve had no problems with refrigeration,” Vaughn said.
Space was an issue, though, according to the chef. The dueling “kitchens” were set up under a bedroom-sized tent that had to cover two work spaces, two gas stoves, a judging table and all of the chefs and their equipment. Each team had a long folding table to work on and about 30 square feet of space to maneuver around in.
Judge Richard Kugelman, a chef instructor at Fayetteville Technical Community College, said space would be the biggest issue.
“The don’t have a kitchen to work in,” he said. “That will be tough.”
The ingredients list was cramped as well — all food was organic, and only so much of it was available.
“You pull the trigger on what you got,” competitor and chef John Lawther said.
Jeremy Wood and Grant Williams, alumni in animal science, came up with the idea to have an organic cook-off event as plans for the street festival got underway about a year ago.
“We just thought it would be a good addition,” Williams said. “It’s going with the theme.”
The organizers planned to include eight local chefs, but realized the logistics would be tough to hammer out. Wood said he wanted to see the event grow at future festivals.
“We will have this again next year and make it bigger and better. There will be more local chefs involved,” he said.
It was big enough to garner support from local business though.
Sushi Thai of Cary sponsored the event and Earth Fare, an organic supermarket, supplied all of the food. The organic angle reinforced the festivals theme of revitalization and sustainability. All of the proceeds from the festival will go to community supported projects and green research.The Iron Chef contest wasn’t exactly like the television show. In addition to food and space limitations, the chefs had to compete twice for the title. The contest was modeled on “March Madness basketball brackets,” according the the festival’s Web site.Each of the four chefs competed in an initial round, with the winners of the first rounds facing off in the final. Each of the three rounds was assigned a secret ingredient, which the chefs were expected to present in a creative and tasty manner for the three judges — in just one hour.The first round, between team Scott Schabat and Daniel Taylor of Porter’s Tavern and Lawther, who described himself as a “free agent … because of the economy,” drew a crowd of about 30 people. Christine Craven was one of the students who clustered around the Iron Chef tent to get a peek at the action. She said the “barbecue and pie” brought her out to the festival, but she was enjoying the cooking contest as well.”I’m trying to learn some new tricks,” she said. “It’s cool to see it in person.”The chefs battled for an hour, working five different kinds of bacon — the secret ingredient — into pastas, soups, sauces and even a dessert.
Although Lawther steered clear of adding sugar to his bacon, Schabat and Taylor dove right in, covering strips of the stuff with milk chocolate.
As soon as the chocolate came out, the judges perked up. Anyone who watches Iron Chef America on Food Network knows that savory secret ingredients sometimes find their way into desserts — anyone remember the trout ice cream from season one? The risky move excited all the judges, especially Alexandra Barnett, the guest judge picked from the crowd. Every time Wood, who was commentating, asked her which dish she was looking forward to most, Barnett would yell, “Chocolate covered bacon!”
The judges must have been impressed with the stuff, as the two-man team from Porter’s won the first round.
Round two, between Vaughn and Chris Gantt, both of Green Planet Catering, and Keith Getchell and John Stephan of Two Guys, introduced mushrooms to the contest. The chefs worked four different kinds of mushrooms into potatoes au gratin and on top of salmon. As the teams worked, Schabat and Taylor hung around, giving pointers to Vaughn — an old friend of Taylor’s.
After the judges tasted the dishes and Vaughn and Gantt took the round, the real fun began. The friends prepared to face off in “battle cheese” for the title of iron chef.
Wood unveiled a selection of hard, soft, aged and green cheeses and sent the competitors to their kitchens. The competition between the teams was noticeable, but their friendly rapport was obvious. The chefs egged each other on, and Taylor started a small tortilla throwing fight with Vaughn.
The chefs incorporated apples, custard and scone pastry into their cheese-centered dishes. And just like the chocolate covered bacon did for round one, Gantt’s hunks of cheese wrapped in phyllo did for round three.
“You win!” Wood shouted into the microphone as he saw Gantt wrap the cell phone-sized slabs of cheddar in shredded phyllo.
But this time the crowd-favored dish wasn’t enough for a win. The judges awarded the title “Iron Chef” to Taylor. Winning and losing weren’t the most important things to the chefs or the organizers though. Wood reiterated the community aspect of the event.
“It was a fun time,” he said. It was good to have students and the community come out.”
The Green Planet Catering team saw the contest as a way to extend the vision of their company, which specializes in using and promoting local food and community projects.
“We believe in supporting the local community,” Vaughn said.Even though he’d been cold and getting rained on all day, Wood beamed as he watched the final round of Iron Chef come to a close.
“I think this has been a great success, despite the weather,” he said. “We’ve raised awareness about local businesses.”
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Check out the interactive map with photos and video from the event.
