Whose Cuisine Reigns Supreme?

Three units compete in Iron Chef contest

Story and Photos by PA3 Sabrina Arrayan

Shiny chrome glistened, steam filled the air, stovetops sizzled, knives carved and the competition was cooking.

Three food service specialists cooking aboard three different cutters competed against each other for the "Coast Guard Sector San Francisco How Do You Iron Chef?" title at Sector San Francisco on July 11. Food Specialists aboard the 87-foot Coast Guard cutters Hawksbill of Monterey, Tern of San Francisco and Sockeye of Bodega Bay cooked in their galleys with limited space and a three-hour time limit, while a camera crew filmed the cook-off for the Food Network’s "How Do You Iron Chef?" promotional show.

Food Service Specialist 2nd Class Matthew S. Williams with the Hawksbill, FS2 David L. Thomas with the Tern and FS2 Jami L. Wheeler with the Sockeye started making preparations for their meals at 9 a.m.

"Their styles of cooking were very different, but the five main ingredients were the same," said Senior Chief Scott D. Hemphill with the Sector San Francisco Command Center and Master of Ceremonies for the event.

Food Service Chief James J. O’Brien of Sector San Francisco chose the main ingredients to be used in the cook-off. The main ingredients were Oriental soup, flank steak as an entree, salad, potato as a side dish and banana for dessert.

There were a total of four judges for each cutter that gave points under the five main categories. The two main judges for all three chefs were Captain David J. Swatland, Commanding Officer Group San Francisco, and Hemphill.

Judges graded each chef’s meal on originality, eye appeal and taste. In addition, a galley impression score served as a tiebreaker. The galley impression score included the presentation and arrangement of food, and the representation of the chef, said O’Brien.

The overall theme, main ingredients and scoring criteria used in this event were modeled after the cook-off started back in early 2004 when O’Brien had an annual chef cook-off at Group San Francisco called the "Captain’s Culinary Cup Iron Chef Competition," said Hemphill. The prior event featured seven Northern California Coast Guard units including, Group San Francisco, Station San Francisco, Station Golden Gate, Station Monterey and the three cutters who competed in this event, he said.

According to Danielle L. Gadlin-Tietjen, writer/producer for the Food Network, Lt.j.g. Rachelle Mealey, formerly with Group San Francisco, reached out to the Food Network after seeing advertisements, asking the public for their experiences related to their own food competitions.

"It had a great spin, the timing was right and it sounded like a great idea," said Gadlin-Tietjen. "It was a chance to feature people who are very important and do a lot for our country," she added. "It was nice to feature chefs working in their small galleys aboard these cutters," she said.

Unlike Sector San Francisco’s annual cook-off, O’Brien and Hemphill brainstormed the idea to have the Food Network film the cook-off dockside aboard the three cutters, said Hemphill.

Aboard each cutter, the camera crew obtained sound bites for the promotional show. A few of the sound bites were: "Wait till you taste my flank steak," "The other cutters have no chance," and "I’m going to slice up the competition," said Gadlin-Tietjen.

The most memorable phrase of the day was "That’s how I iron chef," spoken by Williams. This was the phrase that Williams used after winning the iron chef competition with his four-course meal. Williams’ winning meal consisted of Dragon’s Breath soup for the first course, mixed greens with raspberry poppy seed dressing for the second course, peanut-curry flank steak and Chinese-stir fried potatoes as the third course, and Thai-fried bananas with vanilla ice-cream for the last course.

"The limited space onboard cutters makes it challenging, but I think my crew and preparation helped me to win it. I am proud to be a part of the Hawksbill crew. The whole event was a team effort of the entire crew, and I could not have done it without them," Williams concluded. "The biggest thing in cooking is being prepared. I had everything I needed in front of me. Once one course was completed, I was able to move on to cooking the next course."

The event is expected to air on the Food Network during the commercial breaks following the shows Iron Chef and Iron Chef America as a one-minute promotional show, said Gadlin-Tietjen. It will also be available to view online at www.howdoyouironchef.com, she said.