On September 22nd, I had the pleasure of being chosen to represent our client, Holland Home, and Morrison this year in the 2nd Annual Senior Chef Showdown "Chopped" style cooking competition "Thrill of the Grill" hosted at Covenant of the Great Lakes, with 4 teams in total! Assisting me were the very talented Chef Brian Brookman from Fulton Manor and Melissa Bivens from Northpointe Woods.
Our residents came to cheer us on during the hour cooking time that we had to prepare an appetizer & entrée for 4 using the grill & a pantry of ingredients known prior to the day of competition including salmon, chicken and beef and 4 mystery ingredients! The mystery ingredients were given to us at the start of cooking time and they were cinnamon red hot candy, mangos (ripe), Boursin cheese and New Holland Brewing Co. Ichabod Beer (pumpkin ale). After which four local celebrity judges voted on presentation, creativity and color, taste and use of mystery ingredients.
Each team also brought 150 prepared desserts to be tasted the audience during the cooking time. We brought a Brown Butter Spice Cake with a Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting and a Caramel Brittle with Sea Salt. Yum!
Although we didn't bring home the trophy, our resident definitely won the Team Spirit award and cheered us on the entire time!! Our client was very happy with how they were represented and we had a wonderful time! We know what we need to do to win next time!
We prepared:
Grilled Mango and Tomato with Mango- Basil Pesto on Grilled Foccacia with Boursin and Sea Salt
Grilled Herbed Salmon over Summer Squash and Zucchini with Bacon and Ichabod finished with Red Hot-Ichabod Reduction with Dijon (AWESOME!)
melindaslane | Director of Dining Services Chef- Breton Terrace