Brave Chef cooks up delicious competition

04/15/2014 5:06 PM

By Jennifer Cundiff ’16

Four teams flashed their finest culinary skills in the final night of the second Brave Chef competition, with a team of dietetics interns winning the event.

The dietetics students known as The Tempura Temptresses — Charity Brennan, Sophie Pettipiece, Emma Rueth and Beth Seidl — cooked up the best main dish (spinach risotto with crab cakes and dill sauce) and best dessert (Napoleon pancakes with berries and cream).

Hospitality leadership club Fresh Slice sponsored the competition, which gave teams an hour to prepare three dishes for a panel of judges.

“This project has been an opportunity for Hospitality students to have real world event planning experience, to create awareness for the hospitality industry, and for students to get in touch with their culinary skills,” said event chair Hannah Koci.

The judges included Peoria-area chefs Anthony Eagan of the Creve Coeur Club and Trent Pavlik of Maxine’s on Main in Morton plus Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. David Glassman.

Modeled on the popular Food Network TV show “Iron Chef,“ the teams were presented with cereal as this year’s secret ingredient. Teams had to incorporate the secret ingredient into an appetizer, main course and dessert.

Scoring was done dish by dish and then an overall score of the three dishes decided the winner of the competition, with individual awards for the best of each course.