Moody starts Iron Chef Competition

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Nicholas Benroth
  • 23rd Wing Public Affairs
MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  An Iron Chef is the best of the best, the top chef among all competitors, cooking food that makes others mouth water and taste buds go crazy.

For eight Moody Airmen becoming the top chef was a race against the clock. The 23rd Force Support Squadron services flight hosted Moody's first ever Iron Chef Competition that pitted four, two person teams against each other in an hour long cooking challenge.

"We wanted to set up this Iron Chef competition to have personnel from Moody test their skills against our very own chefs here and see if they could out cook the professionals," said Master Sgt. Shiela Leick, 23rd FSS dining facility manager. "Each competitor was shown around the kitchen and given a rundown of all the supplies they would have access to, so they were all on fare ground."

The teams were given 30 minutes before the start of the clock to gather and supplies they would need and to strategize how they would prepare their meals. They were tasked with making either two or three dishes that included an appetizer, a main course and a dessert.

After the 30 minute window closed, the teams were told of a secret ingredient they would have to incorporate into their dishes. The ingredient was lamb, which was a surprise, and a hurdle for most teams since many had never worked with lamb before and with only 60 minutes the pressure was on to come up with a delectable dish..

"This was the first time I had ever worked with lamb before so it's a bit of a challenge trying to incorporate this into our dishes," said Janice Johnson, part of team culinary fiery duo representing the 23rd Operations Support Squadron. "Lamb is a very lean and delicate meat so was really watching it closely making sure it's cooked but not over done."

As all this was going on in the kitchen, their family and friends and other members were able to watch how the competition was going by way of a live feed that was set up to stream from a camera that was in the kitchen throughout the competition.

For the competition, Col. Billy Thompson, 23rd Wing commander, Chief Master Sgt. Frank Batten, 23rd Wing command chief and Col. Mantz, 23rd Mission Support Group deputy commander, were guest judges and toured the kitchen looking at each teams' dishes.

As the competition came to a close, the teams began to plate their dishes and prepare the judging. Each team had their food brought out and they told the judges and crowd a little bit about what makes their dishes special and how they were made.

After each team went through and the judges got a chance to taste each plate the judges began to tally up their votes to decide who the winner would be.

After a few words from the judges on how well the teams did, the scores were counted and the team who would be crowned Iron Chef was culinary fiery duo made up of Staff Sgt. Zakia Waters and Janice Johnson representing the 23rd OSS.

The 23rd FSS services flight is already beginning to prepare for the next Iron Chef challenge and a time and date will be released when they has been chosen.