A-HA!! The Iron chef has come to an end!! What’s the last thing to do in this unit, a reflection. So, in this blog post, this will be the reflection for the iron chef review.
The iron chef was a fun, creative and nail biter experience. This unit allows the students to put their knowledge, skills and patience to the test in one last dish. My personal experience was just full of emotions. I was having fun cooking my dish, because I’ve never actually cooked this dish before (pierogies). I also felt scarred, because you had to come up with the recipe in a matter of minutes. It takes at least 2 days to make majority of the recipes. Furthermore, the next day we had less time, so running behind was a factor to choose a recipe. Not only that, but we had to use a recipe that involved radishes as the main ingredient. My group was actually behind in making pierogies, we just got lucky that one group wanted to go first, and Mr. Brett allowed my group to go last. Believe it or not, my group won, and I felt really proud.
Our group had troubles choosing a recipe, which led us being behind and rushed when we cooked. First of all, the pratice round’s secret ingredient was coconut, and there was a rule that we wern’t allowed to bake. This really put my group for a loop, as we had to go for fried rice. Second of all, the next secret ingredient was radishes, and our group never cooked radishes before. Unlike the pratice round, we chose a recipe faster this time, which was pierogies. This had more potential than the fried rice, and we had time to prepare it for the next day to actually cook it. All in all, our group could have worked on recipe decision and priority making. I felt a little scared with our decision making, because we made poor choices.
The recipe itself felt adventurous. It was very mysterious and intriguing. I felt the potential it had, and I’m glad my group chose it over a few other recipes we had thought of. Unfortunately, we didn’t had a, “clear cut recipe.” What I’m trying to say here is that we didn’t exactly follow a recipe. Two of my group members: Jordan & Sarah, had made pierogies before, and were very confident they can replicate the recipe that was in there minds. Logan (the third group member) and I didn’t really know what to do, we just simply followed orders from the leader, Jordan. Following orders from someone isn’t the first time for me. I’m mostly a follower, following orders and taking leadership when needed to. We picked pierogies for our iron chef because we wanted to have something that majority knew how to make, and that it will taste really good. The hardest part of this recipe was timing, the speed of cooking, and the garnish. Garnish I was a little worried about, we didn’t have the resources to make all pretty and such. We used the leftover radishes to use as garnish, to make it look good. Timing and the speed we were going at wasn’t too bad, but in the end, it did happen and it impacted on our dish. I believe we would have gotten a higher mark if we cooked the pierogies longer. Still, I’m very pleased about the recipe we chose and how we chose it.
I personally wouldn’t have done anything different. I feel like it would had an negative effect on our dish. As you can see, I’m still a little not sure about my cooking abilities. Now this doesn’t mean over the past few months I didn’t change, it just means that theres still a little hesitant. Anyways, if my group changed something they did, then our present day would be different. I don’t believe this reflection would be the same if we did something different. I’m satisfied with the mark I got, and the participation I did in this unit.
The ingredient restrictions was a huge factor. My group coudn’t use the ingredients they wanted for the filling in thre pierogies. So we had to subsitute it for other ingredients. Time restriction also hit us hard. My group was running behind when we were cooking, and we didn’t fry all of the pierogies. This led to majority of the pierogies to be doughy and non-fry taste. Though, this didn’t really matter in the end, my group won in iron chef so, WOOO! (apologies for not being “professional”) Anyways, this had really pushed everyone to the limit in terms of mental stability and creative thinking. This has a huge factor, and I don’t want to see anything changed about the restrictions. They should be used again, this is a huge success in the growth process for students.
And thats it for my reflection. This is not a good conclusion, or at most not how you start it. However, I have talked way too much, so let me cut it short for the reader.
Thank you for reading, and thank you for your time.
Matthew Wong
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