You could call the 2015 edition of Iron City Chef “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.”
The Vestavia Hills Rotary Club’s annual fundraiser usually pits four professional chefs against each other in a hotly contested cooking competition. This year, the contestants don’t work in restaurants, but at fire stations. Iron City Chef: Firehouse Edition has four Over the Mountain firefighters hoping they finish the July 18 event in a blaze of glory. Competing will be Lee Currie from Mountain Brook, Alexander Glover from Homewood, Edward Pegues from Hoover and Trey VanHooser from Vestavia Hills.
The event is at 6 p.m. at the Jefferson State Community College Culinary and Hospitality Institute, 4600 Valleydale Road near Spain Park High School.
Kent Howard, Vestavia Rotary’s Iron City Chef chairman, said firefighters were recruited to participate this year “to do something different.”
“We’ve had great participation from restaurants and chefs in past years,” Howard said. “This year, someone suggested using firefighters. We talked to Jim St. John, the Vestavia Hills fire chief, and he liked the idea – in fact, he said he already had a guy in mind to compete. He helped introduce us to the other fire chiefs.”
Iron City Chef combines elements of Food Network’s “Chopped” and “Iron Chef America.”
All four contestants will prepare a main dish, starch and dessert and serve samples to those who attend. The two chefs whose food gets the most votes from guests will move on to a head-to-head battle, which will be judged by former Iron City Chef contestants. The top two must incorporate an ingredient provided for them into their finale creations.
“The ingredient is always a protein, like pork or fish,” Howard said.
The finalists also are provided with fresh foods and pantry items that they can use in their dishes.
The kitchen clash is fun for Birmingham-area foodies but has a charitable purpose, too. Iron City Chef benefits Jefferson State’s Culinary and Hospitality Institute, Vestavia Hills High School’s math and debate teams, and local and international Rotary programs.
Howard said Chef Joseph Mitchell, the culinary and hospitality institute’s executive director, is a strong supporter of the fundraiser.
“We use Jefferson State’s space, and Chef Joseph gets his students to help our chefs set up and prepare their food,” Howard said.
Each competing chef is assigned a Jefferson State culinary student as sous chef. The winner’s sous chef gets a $1,000 scholarship from the Vestavia Hills Rotary Club, Howard said.
While the food face-off is the headliner, Sweet Licks will provide entertainment and Western Supermarket will host a wine tasting during the event. Jerry Tracey from Alabama’s 13 is the emcee.
“We couldn’t do this event without Western, Jefferson State and Alabama’s 13,” Howard said.
Tickets are $55. To buy tickets and for more information, visit www.rotarytoast.org.
To read Chef Lee Currie’s profile, please click here.
To read Chef Trey VanHooser’s profile, please click here.
To read Chef Edward Pegues’ profile, please click here.
To read Chef Alexander “Xan” Glover’s profile, please click here.
What’s Cooking in the Iron City Chef Kitchen?
Here’s what the contestants plan to serve in the first round of this year’s Iron City Chef cooking competition.
Guests will sample each chef’s food and then vote for their favorite. The top two vote getters will move on to face each other in the finals.
• Lee Currie was choosing between two menus at press time: Boston butts with macaroni and cheese or meatloaf with mac and cheese and turnip greens. Either way, he’s adding fried cornbread. For dessert, he’ll make a cobbler.
• Alexander Glover will dish up pasta shells stuffed with beef, Italian sausage and cheese and topped with a red sauce. He plans to offer key lime pie for dessert.
• Edward Pegues will stir up shrimp and grits as his main course with banana pudding for dessert.
• Trey VanHooser will serve herb-roasted roulade stuffed with apple chutney, goat cheese and mashed potatoes with focaccia bread and, for dessert, bananas Foster bread pudding ϖ
