Eielson Icemen stir up some competition

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Peter Reft
  • 354th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  Two teams of chefs competed in a cooking contest Oct. 24 at the Eielson Two Seasons Dining Facility to see who could create the best three-course meal with surprise ingredients.

The four-member teams sliced, mixed, chopped, baked and sautéed their way in an effort to earn ultimate bragging rights in the kitchen as Eielson's Iron Chef of the Quarter while judges waited patiently for the dishes to come to life as the clock counted down.

Dining facility members explained they wanted to have cooking competitions but didn't know how to execute the program until Master Sgt. Armon Jackson, the 354th Force Support Squadron dining facility manager, recently took charge and enabled the dining facility team to move forward with its plans.

"We just didn't know how to get it started," said Tech. Sgt. Thomas Beil, the 354th FSS assistant dining facility manager. "Then Master Sergeant Jackson came here a couple of months ago. In the past, he had a similar program, so he was able to get the ball rolling."

Team leads Airmen 1st Class Lazrus Lee and Denzel Davis hand picked their team members. They then met with event judges to receive the competition briefing and main ingredients.

The chefs did not know what they were cooking with until they received the core ingredients in a basket. The teams then had 20 minutes to pull everything they needed from the stock rooms and two and a half hours to prepare appetizers, main courses and desserts before presenting their dishes to the judges.

"Dishes were graded on color, creativity, originality, garnishing, taste, presentation, degree of difficulty, aroma, texture, appeal and compatibility, " said Beil. "The core ingredients used were eggplant, spam, corned beef hash and sweet potatoes."

Team Lee prepared fried corned beef hash balls with sausage, eggplant parmesan with Spam shish kabob and two-layer yellow cake with sweet potato icing and marshmallows.

Team Davis crafted baked corned beef hash patties with sweet and spicy sauce, eggplant parmesan with diced Spam and cheese, and sweet dessert squares.

Team Davis pulled the win during the close competition. Davis was assisted by Airmen 1st Class Alexis Merin, Braxton Martin and Demonta Vanlanham. For its win, the team was awarded the title of Iron Chef of the Quarter and a team trophy, and each Airman received a one-day pass. 

The facility managers said they plan to hold the cooking competitions on a quarterly basis as a way to boost morale among their Airmen.

"They always have little cooking competitions in the back and argue over who made the best macaroni and cheese, so this lets them put their skills to the test," said Beil. "This makes the workplace happier, morale goes up and people cook better."