8 teams from metro-east high schools show their skills at annual competition

Last Wednesday, Red Bud High School’s gymnasium was crowded with competitors — the culinary kind.

The 10th annual Platinum Chef Team Challenge pits area high school cooking teams against each other in a friendly battle where they arrive with equipment, but no idea what ingredients they must use to create a complete dinner menu of their own making, from appetizer to dessert.

The teams of seven (five cooks and two utility/dishwashers) were from Belleville West, Chester, Christ Our Savior, Columbia, East St. Louis, Marissa, Red Bud and Waterloo. This year’s top team was Columbia, followed by Red Bud and defending champion Marissa.

Must-use ingredients were ground beef, pork chops, apples, strawberries, oranges, bell peppers, broccoli, mushrooms and potatoes. Each year there is a surprise ingredient that often stumps the students. One year it was beets. This year, it was four quail eggs per team.

To help out, teams had free access to a pantry and refrigerator stocked with basic staples like soy sauce, canned tomatoes, flour, cheese and butter.

They were mostly on their own about what to create. Their coach/instructors were allowed two 5-minute consultations during the day with the teams, which began about 8 a.m. and ended at 1 p.m.

And while sauteing, dicing and plating were on students’ minds, each had to also take a written test and be scrutinized by sanitation judges as they worked.

“This pushes them to do high-level stuff,” said Jane Steinkuehler, the coach for the Belleville West team. She’s a 22-year veteran food instructor at the high school. “They become their own best critics.”

At the Columbia table, Dalton Verret and Connor Little had the cutting mats out and were chopping onion, broccoli and peppers that would be used in meatballs (a mix of ground beef and andouille sausage) and a Cajun Alfredo Sauce that would cover homemade pasta they made on site.

“We’ve been working on our knife skills,” said Dalton as the two chopped like pros.

Chester student chef Alexis Doolin stepped away from her team, balancing a fork with a slice of seasoned flank steak on it. She blew on it, then took a bite. It’s all part of learning to cook, she said.

“You taste everything before you serve it,” she said.

With staggered starts in the cooking, the first menu arrived for taste-testing by judges at about 11:30. Judges Tom Noonan (SWIC Culinary Arts faculty), David Dannenberg (owner/chef of Opera House Bistro/Catering in Red Bud) and Suzanne Boyle (food editor, Belleville News-Democrat) considered plate appearance, temperature, execution of idea or recipe, most innovative use of ingredients and overall taste.

The event is sponsored by the Monroe-Randolph Regional Office of Education, Okaw Regional Vocation System and Southwestern Illinois College.

This story was originally published March 28, 2016 at 6:41 AM with the headline "8 teams from metro-east high schools show their skills at annual competition."