Charles City Library lets them cook at Teen Iron Chef contest

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

Dishes were hot and so was the competition as the Charles City Public Library hosted its Teen Iron Chef contest on Friday, Dec. 29.

With 12 participants total, four teams of teens competed in the event, each with their own set of conditions to abide by, forced to incorporate a specific food item and a color into their dish.

Starting off with breakfast, Dylan Griffen, Rhylen Ellison, Larke Beevers-Purdy and Jasmine Torge presented the judges with green eggs and carrots. Tasked with incorporating the color blue into the dish, the team miscalculated the effect of mixing blue food coloring with yellow eggs. However, they bounced back by adding Smurf themed peppermints to the dish.

Serving up lunch, Carter Mack, Tinley Parker, and Oliver Parker came up with a peanut butter and apple quesadilla as their signature meal.

For dinner, Piper Parker, Max Parker, and Lucas Mack cooked up sweet potatoes served with chicken and rice.

And as a snack, Layla Barrey and Ellie Bohlen mixed together a red layered pudding and chocolate covered pretzels.

“I think I need to make it a little harder,” said children’s librarian Stacey Leerhoff. “They’re doing too well.”

The judges agreed, giving each item a taste as the teams presented an explanation of their chosen dish.

“It was pleasantly edible,” said library Director Annette Dean.

The contest came down to Team Breakfast and Team Lunch, with the rating between taste, presentation, and even clean-up leaving the two teams in a dead heat.

“This was tough,” said Michael Beevers-Purdy. “Everybody did a great job.”

Ultimately, Team Breakfast was declared the winner after a tie-breaker judge was selected on-the-fly to determine which team would walk away with bragging rights.