2nd annual Chef’s Challenge benefits community kitchen

When two chefs competed in 2002 at the Indiana Memorial Union’s “Clash of the Titanium Chefs,” little did Bloomington know the event would later inspire a cooking challenge to help feed hundreds of people.

Tim Clougher, assistant director of the Community Kitchen of Monroe County, came up with the idea for Bloomington’s Chef’s Challenge – which is like Iron Chef, Bloomington style – after hearing about this event.

Three local chefs – Jake Brenchley, last year’s winner and executive chef at the Scholars Inn; Alan Booze, chef at Meadowood; and Alan Simmerman, prepared foods manager at Bloomingfoods – will compete in an hour-long competition to create a winning food dish. The Community Kitchen kicked off its first cooking competition in 2007, and last year the event raised about $7,000 for the Community Kitchen, Clougher said.

“I thought, ‘Wow, what a great idea that would be. ... It’s a really good fit for us as a fundraiser,” Clougher said.

The event is just that – a fundraiser for the Community Kitchen of Monroe County. For the past 25 years, the Community Kitchen of Monroe County has served meals to the hungry. Each day, the kitchen prepares free meals with donated ingredients for Monroe County’s hungry.

“The competition isn’t about who’s the best chef in Bloomington, but it’s about having fun and highlighting the skills that are around us,” Clougher said.

In essence, the chefs at the challenge will be doing the same thing. Provided with a pantry of more than 250 food items from Bloomingfoods, meat from the Butcher’s Block and produce from local farmers, chefs will work with what they have to create a dish.

Each chef has his own workstation and an assistant to help him in the process. Chefs bring their own equipment but are provided with worktables, an outdoor camping stove, a 16-inch griddle, water and a hand-washing station, Clougher said.

When the chefs are finished cooking, three judges will evaluate the dishes. Steve Mangan, a judge for the challenge and general manager of dining services at the IMU, brings his background in cooking to the judging table. A graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, Mangan will have an open mind when it comes to the competition and will look for chefs doing things the right way, he said.

Aside from their personal approach, they will also have designated judging criteria to follow. Mangan said they will be looking at three things: how chefs manage the space around them, how they utilize the products given to them and how the food tastes.
Audience members can enter a raffle to win a chance to sit on the judges’ bench and sample the offerings.

Mangan hopes the challenge will mobilize support for the kitchen.

Judge Charlotte Zietlow, economic development coordinator at Middle Way House and one of the founders of Goods for Cooks, said she is preparing by reading cookbooks. She has hundreds of them and is reading up on professional cooking techniques.

“I also hope the community kitchen makes a lot of money from this because it’s a great cause,” Zietlow said.


WHEN 7 p.m. Friday
WHERE Buskirk-Chumley Theater
MORE INFO General admission is
$25 , and tickets are available at the Sunrise box  office, all Bloomingfoods locations and the Community Kitchen.