Contest Celebrates Advanced Foodie Lessons [Video]

Warren Middle School's Iron Chef competition returned Tuesday, after a year-long hiatus following a fire in the school's Home Arts room, with eight contestants creating their most savory salads.

The event combines Bev McGorman's cooking class with Gladys Veitch's journalism students—who act as sous chefs for the cooks as well as documentarians of the competition, and follows the same format as the famous TV series.

The students were given 40 minutes to create a salad with at least one cooked ingredient. After intial rounds eliminated 22 of 30 students-chefs, the eight finalists cranked up their stove tops, chopped their ingredients and presented their creations to an anxious group of judges.

The lucky judges—Warren Schools Business Administrator Patricia Leonhardt, Board of Education member Tia Allocco, WMS teachers Lisa Bottone, Sandy Foley, Mrs. Villanueva and Steve Verger, and 2011 Iron Chef winner Evan Rahimi—were served portions of each concoction. The judges scored the entries on appearance, presentation, taste, freshness and creativity, and the scores were tallied to select a winner (who received a cookbook and two gold-painted wooden spoons). 

The contestants- and their dishes—were:

• Kinnary Shah (Sprouted Moong Salad)
• Dylan Stein (Stetson Chopped Salad)
• Lauren Trumpore (Taco Salad)
• David Brewster (Spinach Steak Salad)
• Megan Gerges (Chopped Salad with Shrimp)
• Liam DePekary (Thai Chicken Salad)
• Arianna Rahimi (Crabcake Corn Relish Salad)
• Neelay Trivedi (The Rainforest Salad)