Academy of Culinary Arts Students Vie for Scholarship Funds and Bragging Rights at Annual Iron Student Chef Competition

MAYS LANDING — Three students from Atlantic Cape Community College’s Academy of Culinary Arts program battled for bragging rights and scholarship funds during the 19^th Annual Iron Student Chef Competition on April 25 at the College’s Mays Landing campus.

Begun by the Culinary Student Association as a way for students to display their creativity, this in-house competition allows burgeoning chefs to showcase their talents, come away with bragging rights and win scholarship money. The students had to create their own signature dishes that featured this year’s secret ingredient, oyster mushrooms, as the highlight of the platter.

Second year student Grace Carpenter of Egg Harbor Township, NJ narrowly defeated fellow second year classmate Saudley Delphin, 45.5 points to 45. First year student Austin Krautwald finished in third with 34.5 points. The students’ scores were rated based upon their final kitchen score from 0-20 points based on technique and cleanliness, and their final tasting score from 0-30 points were based on presentation and taste.

Carpenter’s winning dish was a delicious mushroom tart with seared scallops and mushroom cream sauce. Delphin created an impressive mushroom gumbo bowl with mushroom rice and a side of mushroom ice cream. Krautwald devised a mushroom crème brûlée.

“It was a good learning experience, but for my dish I wanted to bring my baking side to it,” said Carpenter, who earned a $700 scholarship for her first-place finish. “So, for the tart shell I did a croissant crust and then I filled it with a goat cheese, garlic and herb goat cheese, and then a mushroom filling on top of that. Then, on the side, I did a mushroom cream sauce with white wine and seared scallops as well.”

For his second-place finish, Delphin received a $500 scholarship while Krautwald earned a $300 scholarship for placing third.

Serving as judges for this year’s competition were Academy of Culinary Arts Class of 2012 alumnus John Zaitoun, who is currently the executive chef at Congress Hall in Cape May, and Class of 2011 alumna Jamie Merlino, who after eight years of working and traveling around the world, is set to open her first business, Wild Roots Provisions, in Cape May soon.

Chef David Goldstein of the Professional Chefs Association of South Jersey local chapter of the American Culinary Federation donated $1,500 to help reward the students taking part in the competition.

“This donation rewards the students for putting themselves out there, and showing their culinary skills and techniques,” said Goldstein. “Hopefully it encourages them to be not only professional, but to be outgoing and unafraid. When they go out into the field it's competitive and we want them to have confidence and show their skills.”

Director of Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Chef Joseph Sheridan thanked the Chefs Association for its donation.

“Thank you. We are really grateful for the chapter’s support. For the first 18 years of this competition it was simply about bragging rights around the academy,” said Sheridan. “Today, thanks to the generosity of the chef’s association, for the first time ever we are able to offer scholarship money to the winners.”

Goldstein was impressed with each student’s final culinary creation.

“Everybody's a winner today. There are no losers in this. Everybody's a winner. Some will do better than others and rightfully so,” continued Goldstein. “Having a mystery ingredient doesn't make it easy, but it challenges them and they need challenge because when you're out in the real world, there's a lot of challenges you face every day, and this is good training as well as a good experience.”

Learn more about Atlantic Cape’s Academy of Culinary Arts by visiting atlanticcape.edu/aca for more information. View a photo gallery of this event on Flickr here.

About Atlantic Cape Community College

Atlantic Cape Community College is a Middle States accredited, 2022 Achieving the Dream Leader College and Hispanic Serving Institution proudly serving the residents of Atlantic and Cape May counties. As a comprehensive, two-year community college, Atlantic Cape offers 46 undergraduate degree programs, and 32 certificate and professional series programs at its Mays Landing, Atlantic City and Cape May County campuses. Atlantic Cape is home to the renowned Academy of Culinary Arts, rated the top culinary school in New Jersey, and for more than 50 years, our highly-acclaimed Nursing program. Atlantic Cape also partners with more than 30 colleges and four-year universities to offer students the opportunity to seamlessly earn a bachelor’s degree upon graduation.