Aspiring cooks compete for Top Chef title

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Katherine Windish
  • 31st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy --  Nine Airmen represented their professional development organizations in the quarterly Aviano Top Chef competition at the La Dolce Vita dining facility Aug. 6, with the Company Grade Officer's Council taking top honors at the event.

The CGOC, Top 3 and Aviano Airmen Advisory Council were each represented by three members who worked to concoct a meal and dessert in one hour, to be judged by Lt. Col. Scott Vaughan, 31st Mission Support Group deputy commander; Lt. Col. Tyler Schaff, 31st Force Support Squadron commander; and Master Sgt. Ernesto Peralta, 31st FSS food service manager.

"[This competition] highlights the jobs that the folks in the dining facilities do every day for our Airmen," said Schaff. "It's tough to get creative, but you can see from today that you can have the same ingredients, yet still come up with three very different results. We have people who do this three times a day, and they do a great job and they take a lot of pride in it. They're the unnoticed heroes who work with what they have and make it happen."

After FSS officials announced that competitors would be using pork as the ingredient for their main dish and fruit for the dessert, the participants began to chop, slice, sauté and bake to complete their dishes in time.

Senior Airman Amber Swearengin, 31st Maintenance Group knowledge operator and AAAC vice president, said they would be focusing on making a healthy meal.

"I absolutely love to cook, and I am very excited for the challenge" she said. "Our team is going to try and make a meal using fresh, healthy ingredients. I want to try and show people that you can eat healthy, and the meal can still be filled with flavor."

The AAAC's sweet and spicy pork with mango salsa and fresh pineapple crumble earned second place in the competition, and judges were particularly impressed with their main entrée.

"I took a bite from the first meal, and I went 'Wow! This is great!' and then I tried the second one and said 'Wow, this is great too,'" said Schaff. "They were all so great it was a very tough decision to make."

The CGOC, Top Chef overall winners, made a pineapple pork stir-fry served with pita bread, fresh tomatoes and basil. For dessert, the team served judges a homemade apple cake.

"You know the feeling you get when you bake a tray full of brownies and they're finally ready and you get to take them out of the oven? It's like that feeling, times one hundred," said 2nd Lt. Cameron Carter, 31st Contracting Squadron operation contracts manager, about winning the competition. "I enjoyed knowing that our competition wasn't just going to lie down and give us this trophy, we had to go back there and sweat for it."