The heat is on Published Feb. 7, 2014 By James Branch 94th Airlift Wing Public Affairs DOBBINS AIR RESERVE BASE, Ga. -- Dobbins' Force Support Squadron kicked of its first of six taste tests for the Air Force Reserve Command Top Chef Competition Oct. 28. Base Clubs and Community Activity Centers are concentrating on their chefs and the quality of the food they serve. The competition will take place Oct. 11, 2011 thru March 31, 2012. "The goal of this competition is to create excitement within our kitchen staffs and bring that excitement to the food we serve our daily clientele as well as our Airmen during troop feedings," said Shelia Idigpio, AFRC chief of business operations. The Dobbins Consolidated Club will host six taste tests. Five primary and three alternate judges have been selected. Judges will score each dish on taste, texture, presentation, creativity and use of ingredients. AFRC will keep track of all scores. At the end of the six month competition, four top scoring chefs will compete for their bases for overall prizes. "This is an awesome opportunity for the Dobbins Consolidated Club," said Lisa Stevens, Dobbins chief of services. "Winning chefs and their club manager will travel to Homestead Air Force Base to compete for top honors including a $200 professional chef knife set, training with two top celebrity chefs, John Besh and Aaron Sanchez and a $5000 grant for their base club." The two Dobbins' competing chefs are David D' Amour and Mike Medford. Judges for the competition are Capt. Robert Mayes of the 94th Security Forces Squadron, Capt. Jamison De la Pena of the 94th Communications Flight, Chief Master Sgt. Ronald A. Aickelin of the 622nd Regional Support Group, Senior Master Sgt. Joy Hughes of 94th Education and Training and Mr. Ken Williams of 94th Civil Engineering. "We have two highly trained chefs," said Stevens. "D' Amour is currently our executive chef of 11 years. Medford is a magna cum laude graduate of Le Cordon Blue College of Culinary Arts in Atlanta." The cooking ingredients for this month's taste test are, beef short ribs, oranges, fresh ginger root and Guinness Stout. The chefs have an hour and a half to prepare a fully cooked meal, but no access or knowledge of the ingredients until the moment they open them to begin cooking. The battle begins! Mike Reardean, Dobbins club manager, monitor's the chef and alerts them when time's up. He introduces them to the judges, who are seated in the Smyrna room of the club with their eating utensils in one hand and grade sheets in the other. "I prepared the ribs and braised them with a Caribbean, Cubin and Irish (Guinness) sauce," said Medford. "I sided them with rice with ginger and garlic, chopped and mashed to fuse, onion straws with paprika and baked corn as a garnish." Each tester's plate has enough food for two or three bites. After scoring each of the categories on their critique sheets, they are ready for the next presentation. "I braised the short ribs in fresh-squeezed orange juice, onion, garlic, cinnamon, raisons and morocco flavor with cumin," said Damour. "It's served on a bed of sweet potato puree." The judges make their final critiques. The scoring sheets are sent to Idigpio, who will keep scores throughout the competition and select the top four scoring chefs in AFRC. Those chefs will then compete for the overall prizes. "Both dishes were excellent," said Williams. "The chefs are very limited on the ingredient selections, but I guess that's the nature of the contest." Although many of our judges agreed both dishes were good, only one will be crowned AFRC Top Chef. Reardean took a moment to highlight a brand new Dobbins Club menu. "We have new daily buffets," said Rearden. "On Monday, we have a freshly-made pasta bar. On Tuesday, there's a Mongolian BBQ bar. Wednesday has All-U-Can-Eat themed buffets including Italian, Mexican and Southern foods. Thursday is Chicken Day, with an option of all-u-can-eat chicken for $8.95 (club members) $9.95 (non-club mem-bers) or our Blue Plate featuring two pieces of chicken, two side items and a roll ($5.95 for club members or $6.95 for non-club members). Friday is All-U-Can-Eat Soup & Salad for $6.95 or wings by the pound for $6.95 (10 different flavors of sauce)." On-Base delivery is coming soon, said Reardean. The next Dobbins' Top Chef Competition is scheduled for Nov. 30.
