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In The News
October 1, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Allez Cuisine!—CSU Dominguez
Hills Hosts
Student Iron Chef Competition
WHAT: Toro
Iron Chef
WHEN: Thursday, Oct. 4, 6 p.m.
WHERE: Palm Courtyard,
Loker Student Union on the campus of California State University,
Dominguez Hills. www.csudh.edu/site/VisitUs/Maps.asp.
Carson, CA –The
battle is on to determine who will reign supreme in California
State University, Dominguez Hills’ version of Kitchen
Stadium.
On Oct. 4, the Palm Courtyard of
the Loker Student Union will be transformed to resemble
the set of the popular Food
Network series “Iron Chef America” for the first-ever
Toro Iron Chef competition. Surrounded by an audience and
a panel of judges, and lorded over by “Chairman” Markus
Biegle (in real life, vice president of operations for Associated
Students, Inc.), four teams of Dominguez Hills students will
have one hour to create as many dishes as they can using
the featured “secret ingredient.”
Toby Bushee, catering and events
manager for Campus Dining Services, which along with the
Multicultural Center on campus
is sponsoring the event, offered this hint for what the ingredient
might be: “It has a lot to do with our mascot.”
Toro Iron Chef will differ slightly
from the television show that inspired it. It will take
place outside, for one,
and will actually be three competitions. The first two rounds
(the Oct. 4 event and another in November) will see students
competing against students to determine which team will go
on to the final round in December and face CSUDH’s
own Iron Chef, university Executive Chef Elder Flores. Flores
has been at Dominguez Hills for 10 years, during which time
he graduated from Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Pasadena.
Then there is the matter of the student
competitors’ cooking
abilities. None are professional chefs like the ones who
are on “Iron Chef America.” Bushee, who started
a similar competition at Pomona College while employed there
several years ago, said there is no cause for alarm: He met
with each team member to assess their cooking knowledge and
ensure they knew their way around a kitchen. Executive Chef
Flores also will be on hand during those first rounds to
mentor the student chefs.
Each cooking station in CSUDH’s
Kitchen Stadium will come complete with all essential cooking
equipment and ingredients,
and most of those ingredients will be sliced and diced and
ready to go, Bushee said. Contestants will have a chance
to become familiar with their station four hours before the
competitions, and as an added bonus, they will be told the
secret ingredient one hour before the countdown clock begins.
Bushee said the competition is about more than determining
who the best cook is.
“It’s really geared for fun,” Bushee said. “It’s
a chance for students to do something fun with the people
they go to classes with. We wanted to do something that really
added to student life here. This is something where the students
are actually a part of the entertainment. Now that’s
student life.”
The competition is also serving to promote a new degree
program focused on sports, entertainment and hospitality
that is being offered through the College of Business Administration
and Public Policy.
“We hope this will draw students into the hospitality
program,” Bushee said. “We want this to be the
stepping stone for that.”
The four teams competing in the first round of Toro Iron
Chef Oct. 4 are as follows:
Team Vasquez — Roberto Vazquez, Angie Anderson and
Carol Shimazu
Team Delancy — Delancy Christion, Kevin Powers, Joy
Owens and Jesse Sandoval
Team Tournants — Kimberly Ngyen, Greg Marshall, Marcus
Tanner and Maiden Barra
Team Butterflies — Tiffany Rogers, Mario Marino, Watana
Patton and Sharlen Smith.
Judging their culinary abilities
will be CSUDH President Mildred García; interim
Vice President of Advancement Greg Saks; Vice President
of Administration and Finance Mary
Ann Rodriguez; Academic Programs staff member Maya Banda;
Assistant Professor Natasa Christodoulidou, who is coordinator
of the new sports and hospitality program; and Travis Kamiyama,
a CSUDH alumnus and chef/owner of Kamiyama Sushi in
Ontario and Orange, and Genesis by Kamiyama in Osaka, Japan.
For more information about the competition, contact Toby
Bushee at (310) 243-3814.
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About
CSU Dominguez Hills -- California
State University, Dominguez Hills is a highly diverse,
urban university located in the South Bay, primarily
serving the
Los Angeles metropolitan area. The university prides itself
on its outstanding faculty and friendly, student-centered
environment.
Known for excellence in teacher education, nursing, psychology,
business administration, and digital media arts, new degree
programs include computer science, criminal justice,
recreation and leisure
studies, social work, and communication disorders. On campus
is the Home Depot Center, a multi-purpose sports complex
that hosts
world-class soccer, tennis, track and field, lacrosse, and
cycling.
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