Iron Chef - Nov 16; 1:00pm; Rathskeller

Subject: Iron Chef - Nov 16; 1:00pm; Rathskeller Sun Jun 26, 2011 5:50 am

When: 11/16/2011 - Wednesday
Where: Student Center Rathskeller
Time: 1:00pm - 5:00pm

What: Our popular event, Iron Chef!

Items I requested from the Student Center that we can use at the event:
Blackboard (to write WELCOME, the team names, etc)
Easel (to leave outside the door to draw ppl in)
Whiteboard (just in case we need it, I think it would be cool to write the dishes made on the white board for the audience)

--
Orgs we are thinking to Co-Sponsor with:
Russian Club, CSA, APO, Phi Sigma Sigma, KASA, Spectrums

Although this is not the first time we are doing this event, and although most of these questions can be easily answered, just answer it if you have an answer.
This thread is also intended for future purposes, ie: future eboard to look back on.

How many teams should we have in this competition?
Are we competing?
How will we be assigning who to be the judges?
How will we go about assigning the secret ingredient? (Will it be a secret or will the teams know it before hand?) **there are more questions related to this question
How will we determine what is the secret ingredient?
Should we make a list of suggestions of the ingredient and then within the club meeting we vote on it?
Are we just going to be supplying the other teams with the secret ingredient? Or are we going to be buying other stuff?
(if we are just supplying the ingredient and nothing else that means they should know the ingredient a day or two beforehand..?? they need to know what they need to buy in order to make their food)
In regards to the statement in parenthesis above, how early should we announce to the teams the ingredient?
We need to take into consideration that they need to buy their other ingredients in as well and create a bill for said ingredients. SO how should we approach this?
++Or should we determine how much $$ they should spend for their ingredients in total so when they submit the bill they can just say for example "groceries and other various ingredients - $50" That way we can announce it a week ahead to give them time to buy their ingredients.
Should we have a small prize for the winners?

----

When we have a confirmation of which teams are interested in participating, we should do the following:
(more suggestions can be added to this list as well, so tell us if you have a suggestion)

Give a letter in their club mailbox located in the SGA Office to announce their participation in Iron Chef.
In this letter, rules will be stated.
If we decide to announce the secret ingredient, state that the ingredient will be announced at a later date, giving them time to pre-plan and buy ingredients as well as creating/submitting a bill.
They need to bring their own appliances such as a microwave.
They need to help clean up at the event to be fair. If any org leaves a mess, we should make some sort of penalty.

I hope this covers a lot!
Please post with your comments, suggestions, etc!

Thanks for reading
-CC

Posts : 224 Join date : 2010-03-04 Age : 35

I love the last section about the steps and comminucation to the other clubs, that was really missing last time. As far as answers, this is what I think would work best, based on what seems like every combination under the sun ever beening done on campus...

•How many teams should we have in this competition? min 2. max depends on space, rat equals 4 and thats pushing it.

•Are we competing? would love to. dont have to.

•How will we be assigning who to be the judges? we need to find qualified judges who do not have a heavy bias for an organization. interestingly enough i think matt from gamers was the best judge under those terms. i like having one japan club member be a judge, bria was great because she was new, chill, and was on good terms with everyone. someone from the montclarion would make a great judge, or from the sga

•How will we go about assigning the secret ingredient? (Will it be a secret or will the teams know it before hand?) **there are more questions related to this question: its a matter of money. if they spend the money, the need to know what to buy ahead of time. this is a cheaper option for us, coming in at 125 (50 for secret ingrident and 75 for our teams pantry if we're even cooking). if we buy the food, we would need a min of 200 for two teams, pantry and secret ingridents. this multplies with each team.

•How will we determine what is the secret ingredient? at least one eboard member needs to know, usually the person going shopping. the traits of a great secret ingrident include versatility, cost, diverse product (white potato, sweet potato, fingerlings, etc), familar enough not to scare the teams ("its not fair, they picked nori, japanese rice, etc")

•Should we make a list of suggestions of the ingredient and then within the club meeting we vote on it? yes and no. the brainstorming is great, but the small size of a committee worked well, we had suz, cassie, matt, myself, c.c. and jess.

•Are we just going to be supplying the other teams with the secret ingredient? Or are we going to be buying other stuff?
(if we are just supplying the ingredient and nothing else that means they should know the ingredient a day or two beforehand..?? they need to know what they need to buy in order to make their food): yes they do, this boils down to cost. i like the cheaper option. it creates better food... and is much cheaper...

•In regards to the statement in parenthesis above, how early should we announce to the teams the ingredient?
We need to take into consideration that they need to buy their other ingredients in as well and create a bill for said ingredients. SO how should we approach this?
++Or should we determine how much $$ they should spend for their ingredients in total so when they submit the bill they can just say for example "groceries and other various ingredients - $50" That way we can announce it a week ahead to give them time to buy their ingredients.

they should have a $75 limit on their pantry shopping. I like the 24 hour notice battle, it adds the intensity we lose from not being in a big kitchen and revealing at the last mintue. as long as they know whats going on and have a plan, they should be fine. pathmark is open 24hours and so is a lot of shoprites. I think a week is a lot of time. the last time an ingrident was announced well ahead of time, ICC came with prepared dishes. Lame...
•Should we have a small prize for the winners?

that would be lovely if we could.

There should deff be a document the orgs read and sign... no more miscommunication... this is war! (well culinary war anyway....)

Can we watch iron chef in the background? we've been being to for a long time.... ^_^I want to see morimoto!

Posts : 358 Join date : 2010-02-27

I agree with 4 pushing it, but if these orgs prep early enough and of course if we have good communication then it might actually work!
Ahhh that is a cool idea to invite someone from the montclarion or the sga.
I was thinking perhaps invite our legislator if she is available as well. I think maybe we should have one guest judge where we pick one person from the audience? Not someone we know or from the other orgs, like someone who stopped by to see what’s going on and stayed to watch…..perhaps. 8D

I agree with a committee for this event.

Well we can give a penalty for any org who comes in with a dish prepared already. When we give out the notices, we can clearly state NO prepped food. Just raw ingredients. If a club breaks that rule to an extent, we have the power to disqualify the contestant.
Then maybe we can at least give a few days notice. I understand what you mean by a 24 hr notice, but we don’t know the circumstances for the other orgs and their eboard/member schedule. I think that is why one org was late last time is because they didn’t have the chance or didn’t want to go late (if they couldn’t go earlier or didn’t find out what the ingredient was until later). If we state our rules clearly enough and when they say “yes we want to participate,” that means they agreed to our terms.

If we participate and already know the ingredient, it wouldn’t be fair either if we bought our stuff the weekend prior while the others get a 24 hr notice.

I like your idea of a spending limit. It also makes it a challenge in a way to buy ingredients. I think we should discuss more on what the limit $$ amount should be. I like the 75$ . Does anyone else suggest a different $ amount?

Posts : 224 Join date : 2010-03-04 Age : 35

Just be careful with judges... I know Yusra is muslim, and cant have pork... which should rule her out as a judge. (unless she's willing to eat it anyway?)

Other traits judges can not have...:
veggietarean
religious issues with pork, dairy, seafood or a combo of
unwilling to eat certain things, like alex's problem with eggs.. o.O

I dont think a prepared dish should be allowed for judging. Now consuming, yes. they can bring it for the audience if theyd like.

I think communication errors is what caused the team to misunderstand, but they were late because of car trouble, something that cant be helped.

and if we told everyone they had 24 hours, so would we. (and we did last time, our cooks werent told until 5pm, which was when everyone was supposed to be told by kathy...) I think its manganable if they know what their getting into. They are consenting adults in college after all.

Now when you say prepped, you mean fully ready right? How do you feel about already cooked chicken strips or meatballs, like the kind you find in the supermarket?

Posts : 358 Join date : 2010-02-27

Yes car trouble but why did they go out? ah yes to buy the ingredients in the first place right?
that is what im saying, no matter what the reason is being for being late, it basically stemmed from buying the ingredients. unless they were out doing something else, then idk. :p

yes we should clearly state that if we choose one guest judge from the audience and when we figure out who are going to be our judges.

ahh ok i wasn't sure because i wasn't very involved in the iron chef last time we had it.
i would say no to those. the challenge is to cook something on the spot within a time limit using a "secret" ingredient.
doing that would defeat the purpose as well :p and there is no skill in serving that.

Posts : 15 Join date : 2010-06-03

I remember the chicken being an issue..... We definitely need to make sure there is no breakdown in communication coz it kinda screwed everything up last time.

Posts : 224 Join date : 2010-03-04 Age : 35

I'm inclined to say no, but there is a safety issue with food. If, and only if, all teams agree to work cleanly and safely, we can ban precooked protein. One year we had a pre event meeting and it worked well. Maybe we should breif them on food safety? There is a big risk of undercooking meat and contamination issues with raw protein, and that needs to be adressed.

Posts : 358 Join date : 2010-02-27

i agree, i like the idea of a pre event meeting to go over all of the rules as well as the issue so there wont be any issues later.
you guys bring up a good idea ^^

Posts : 224 Join date : 2010-03-04 Age : 35

ok here are the usual formats for iron chef. I've simplifed them into three different formats, each with pros and cons.

Iron Chef Formats
Standard TV format:An Iron chef and a challenger chef face off. They each have two sous chefs, and a full kitchen to work with. They get a full pantry to work with. The chairman provides the secret ingredient. (Behind the scenes; each chef knows there is a choice of two ingredients ie: potato or banana. They submit the special ingredients they will need. The chairmen will provide all the ingredients they will need, and the chefs will find out last minutes whether it will be potato or banana.)
Pros: authentic tv format
Cons: expensive. Host pays for everything, including full pantry and special ingredient.
Example, we did it this way with a classroom once, with the culinary department at msu. Expensive.

McGuyer format:# of orgs face off, each org gets same number of chefs. We supply cooking equipment and supplies. We provide plates for judges. We provide secret ingredient and full pantry.
Pros: complete control of getting all supplies there on time.
Cons: expensive. Orgs don’t contribute any money. We are fully responsible for picking general pantry and equipment. Creativity might be limited, since our budget is limited.

Adjusted tv format:# of orgs face off, each org gets same number of chefs. Secret ingredient is provided by host. Ingredient is unveiled a certain amount of time before cook off. Each team provides their own cooking equipment. Each team creates their own pantry.
Pros: cheaper for host. Least responsibility for host, each org brings their own equipment and pantry, tailored to their needs.
Cons: eliminates dramatic visuals. Teams will only have the prescribed amount of time to collect their equipment and food pantry.
**favorite method: simply adjust the time and money constraints to your desire**
**suggested amounts: 24hrs – 5 days; $50 for secret ingredient, $75 per org pantry. **

thoughts? we had 24hrs last year, and it seems too small a window for orgs. so what is a good window of time? 2 days? 5 days? what is reasonable, yet not too easy?

also, ill be working on a list of conditions for our event. namely that we will be providing the secert item, and they will provide everything else.

*my microwave, the one in the office, is only for japan club use. that is my personal microwave, and is not up for grabs!*

after choosing and setting a format, a formal rules and condition must be drawn up and given to every participant and org.

we need a critrea for coming up with a secert item. maybe we can create a locked thread to generate some ideas?

Subject: Re: Iron Chef - Nov 16; 1:00pm; Rathskeller Fri Oct 07, 2011 5:17 am

How many people on a cooking team have there been in previous years?

Posts : 224 Join date : 2010-03-04 Age : 35

usually three to a team.

Subject: Re: Iron Chef - Nov 16; 1:00pm; Rathskeller

» Midori Day - Nov 30; 1:00pm; Rathskeller
» Iron Chef - Nov 10 @ Cafeteria B/C
» Iron Chef Feb23rd 5-8PM
» Haiku Fun & Ramen Noodle Yum! Dec 7; 1:00pm; Rathskeller
» Halloween Cosplay Dating Auction Oct 28; 7:00pm; Rathskeller