This post is a bit belated, as the Iron Chef competition happened back in February. In case you don’t know, Iron Chef is a supremely absurd cooking show in which competitors freak out and produce delectable, edible, “works of art”. Iron Chef Yale is similar, except instead of master chefs competing, you have people like me who think peanut butter, chicken, and soy sauce makes for masterful fare.

Saybrook’s team consisted of Molly Zielenbach, Ben Flores, and me! As an appetizer, we cured our salmon in herbs and salt for 33 hours and served with a salad of fresh greens. For our main course, we made a “deconstructed fish taco”, which consisted of a salmon flambe, cooked in rum and honey, on top of a bed of rice and beans. On the side we provided fried tortilla strips and a fresh mango-jalapeño salsa.

Below a video of some random stuff going on at the event, and then Molly describing our scrumptious dish.

Teams were given points in three areas: sustainability, quality of food, and a general category in which mistakes during cooking counted against the chefs. I’m pleased to say that our dish placed second in overall quality of food. However, the cured salmon used in our appetizer was ruled not a marinade and too much preparation in advance, causing a large point deduction and dropping us to seventh place.

Although we didn’t come home with a big cash award or eternal glory, I know the three of us had a great time and made some damn good food. Working with the Saybrook Dining Hall staff was a really great time, with their knowledge and understanding of the complexities of food really coming across. One chef tasted our salad, and instantly knew that we needed a hint of dill to improve it. Our biggest supporter was John Morris, who really shepherded us along the entire way. Good luck next year, Saybrook.  With the help of John and the Saybrook staff, I know you’ll be a competitive team.

For more on Iron Chef, here’s a link to the online magazine Midnight at Yale