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Food fight for fame at Austintown Fitch
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Nate Armstrong worked with one of his sous chefs to prepare his ingredients for his Frito Chilli Pie. The sous chefs were students from Choffin.
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Ben Bauldner and his two sous chefs read their instructions and talked about what they needed to do next.
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Chris Berni mixed together his ingredients for his Frito Chilli Pie. Each chef had two sous chefs to help them during the competition.
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Pictured, from left, Ben Bouldner, Nate Armstrong, Mike Sauner and Chris Berni donned their chef hats in preparation for the Chilli Frito Pie throwdown at Austintown Fitch High School on March 2.
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Mike Sauner and his sous chef read the recipe for the Frito Chilli Pie to prepare his ingredients in hopes of winning the competition.
By ALEXIS BARTOLOMUCCI
Austintown Fitch High School hosted a Throw Down Challenge for the principals on March 2.
AFHS principals Mike Sauner, Ben Baldner and Chris Berni, and Family Liaison, Nate Armstrong, all competed against each other to create a new Chilli Frito Pie lunch item for the school lunch menu. There were four chef tables set up and an ingredients table available for the chefs to use.
Each chef used the same recipe to make a Chlli Frito Pie, but the meats used were different. Names were pulled out of a hat to decide which chef got to choose their meat product first. Meat choices were chicken, taco meat, fiesta black beans and BBQ pulled pork. Sauner chose chicken, Baldner got the beef, Armstrong chose the BBQ pulled pork and Berni got the black beans.
Austintown Food Services Department worked with Ohio State University Extension, Youngstown State University Nutrition internship students, Gordon Food Services and Frito Lay to create this Fitch Frito Throw Down challenge and help bring it to life.
Culinary students from Choffin Career and Technical Center served as sous chefs for the chefs. Each chef had two sous chefs who helped prepare the ingredients, read the recipe and whatever else the chefs needed.
“This is the first time, they’re going into it blind,” said Tascin Brooks, Austintown Food Service Director.
Brooks came up with the idea while working with a Frito representative, Kim Oats. A Team Nutrition grant and a Buckeye Healthy grant allowed Brooks and Oats to work on creating a project like this.
“I’ve always wanted to do a throw down. Having the principals cook with it, but let’s change it up and make it extreme,” said Brooks.
Brooks said the planning took around 6-8 months to complete everything. Those involved had to make sure it would run smoothly while following the food guidelines.
“The Ohio Department of Education is excited about it. It’s nice to be able to work with everybody, we’re just really excited about, it’s fun,” said Brooks.
The Choffin students will recreate the recipes during the lunch periods for the students to try. After the students taste the different Chilli Frito Pies, they will vote for their favorite recipe and the winning recipe will be added to the lunch menu.