Erica Krug
Laila Borokhim, Jason Kierce and Gill Altschul were three chefs who were "chopped" before the evening's end.
One of the things that makes Chef Week exciting is the opportunity to watch some of Madison's best-known chefs in action, creating new dishes not in their regular repertoire.
This was the case Monday night, March 6, when James Beard-nominated chef Nick Johnson (formerly of Restaurant Magnus and other kitchens, now at Forage Kitchen) claimed the Chopped trophy in a kosher cook-off at the UW Hillel.
Four chefs — Laila Borokhim of Layla’s Persian Food, Jason Kierce of Adamah Neighborhood Table, Gilbert Altschul of Grampa's Pizzeria and Porter, and Johnson, began the competition.
The competition, modeled after Chopped, the popular Food Network reality cooking show, began each round by presenting the chefs with a basket of “mystery” ingredients unknown to them beforehand, and a time limit. After creating dishes with these constraints, one chef would get “chopped” or ejected each round. For this event, the chefs had the added constraint of needing to prepare their dishes following the strict Jewish rules of cooking kosher.
With an eclectic assortment of ingredients, including condensed milk, trail mix and tomatillos, the chefs created some awe-inspiring dishes, in front of a live audience.
The Kosher Chopped event is Kierce's way of having some fun and challenging several of Madison’s chefs to cook the way he has to every day as head chef of a kosher-certified kitchen. The contest was hosted by Barry and Patti Levenson of Middleton’s Mustard Museum.
The chefs’ dishes were judged on creativity, presentation and taste by three judges from Madison College’s Culinary Institute; there was also an audience vote on presentation.
Jason Kierce
A petite salad with a jalapeno and condensed milk vinaigrette, shaved jalapeno and roasted trail mix from Jason Kierce.
The first round, the appetizer course, featured dairy, but no meat. (One rule of kosher is that dairy and meat cannot be in the same dish.) The 15-minute round began as the chefs peeled the aluminum foil off of a tray revealing the three ingredients that had to be used: sweetened condensed milk, trail mix and jalapeño peppers. The aroma of raw jalapeños filled the room as the chefs started chopping and calling out directions to their assistants, students from Madison's Culinary Institute.
A Wisconsin Public Television camera crew followed chefs as they ran back and forth between the kitchen and their stations in front of the audience. As the chefs cooked, the Levensons interviewed audience members, including Dan Fox of Heritage Tavern, who said he would probably use the ingredients to make a version of a jalapeo popper.
At the end of the fifteen minutes, the chefs presented their dishes to the judges. There was a goat milk salad with pickled veg from Johnson, cheesy grits with candied trail mix and jalapeños from Altschul, fried green beans with cheesy sauce from Borokhim and a petite salad with condensed milk and jalapeño vinaigrette from Kierce.
As the chefs awaited judgement, they held hands and joked about the awkwardness of how long they had to keep the grasp. In the end, it was Borokhim who got chopped, leaving Altschul, Johnson and Kierce to battle in the meat round, which centered on three new ingredients: lamb, tomatillos and spicy horseradish mustard. This time the chefs had 30 minutes for meal prep.
Johnson’s Moroccan lamb with a tomatillo and herb chimichurri wowed the judges. The audience vote on presentation went to Kierce, so it was Altschul (who’d made grilled lamb over a tomatillo and eggplant caponata) who got chopped and joined the audience to watch the final round. Munching on a celery stick, Altschul reflected on the competition: “I think I got robbed in that round,” he said.
Jason Kierce
This final round dessert submission was a bread pudding with kasha, cocoa and tofu, topped with caramel, orange supremes and powdered sugar, from Jason Kierce.
The last round was dessert. This course was “parve,” meaning neither meat nor dairy, with the required ingredients this time being soy milk, silken tofu and kasha (aka buckwheat groats).
In the 30 minutes, Kierce made a bread pudding while Johnson created a lemon olive oil cake with caramelized kasha granola and a granita of frozen banana, coconut milk and pineapple.
In the end, the judges thought Kierce's dessert tasted too much like tofu. After deliberating, the judges named Johnson the winner and presented him with the Chopped trophy.
“It was great, I really enjoyed the competition,” Johnson said. “Changing your whole thought process on cooking and your style was really at play,” he said. “Some technical stuff gets thrown out the window when you have what seems to be [time as short as] a commercial break.”
Events for Chef Week continue through Sunday.
