Iron Chef — 5 Healthy Towns Style!

Allez’ Cuisine! Tips and Tricks for your Family

Written by Amy Heydlauff

Let’s shake things up this holiday season and bring the entire family (or any crowd) into the kitchen. We have an idea, especially for our competitive readers.

Let’s start with teams. Add secret ingredients. Or shopping budgets. You can even assign cooking appliances. Here’s what we propose.

First, decide on the rules. Here are some suggestions:

Someone should be in charge and be a final decision-maker for inevitable questions. Stay flexible – this is going to get silly (bacon with a chocolate pudding dip, prepared on a grill, for instance… a surprising winner in one competition).

Identify judges in advance. Consider neighbors, great-grandparents, or non-family guests.

Every team has at least one child, if children are on hand. Preferably on teams with aunts, uncles, grandparents, neighbors, or friends… but not parents.

Mix teams to include members from multiple families. Break up couples if this is a friend or neighborhood activity.

Set time limits and rules for the kitchen space. If the kitchen can accommodate it, the confusion of all teams in the kitchen at the same time is extremely entertaining.

Depending on the type of competition, each team can draw a kitchen appliance and a meal course. For instance, a team may draw microwave/air-fryer and appetizer, oven and side dish, stovetop and main course, or grill and dessert.

If you decide to allow grocery shopping, set firm time limits and budgets. All teams should go to the grocery store together.

Make a vegetable, any vegetable, a required element.

Throw in an additional required food. Let each team put an ingredient candidate in a hat. All teams must use whichever ingredient is drawn

. Consider a brunch competition if you don’t want to disrupt established meal traditions.

Have a camera on hand to capture memories and memorialize winners.

You can use these rules or design a competition from scratch.

Iron Chef – 5 Healthy Towns promises to be an entertaining way to shake up your holiday season and connect in the kitchen with family, friends, neighbors, or all three!

Send us pictures to post (lori@5healthytowns.org).

We love seeing our community having a great time.

Iron Chef Starter Pack Ideas

Pizza Dough

Carrots

Cranberries

Apples

Pears

Cherries

Tortillas

Bacon

Frozen Peas

Chocolate Pudding

Sweet Potatoes

Hard Squash (pumpkin, acorn, delicata, etc)

Fruit preserves

Maple Syrup

Meal Course

Appetizer

Soup/Salad

Entrée

Sides

Dessert

Cooking Appliances

Grill

Stove

Cooktop

Air Fryer

Raw/cold

Griddle

Microwave

Cooking Ideas

Appetizer – Grilled pizza with apricot preserves, pears and goat cheese

Entrée – Roasted Turkey breast with chocolate pudding mole sauce

Side dish – Hollowed out squash with apple and cornbread stuffing prepared in an air fryer

Dessert – Cranberry relish sorbet prepared in the freezer or an ice cream machineI