Iron Chef Competition Cooked Up Fun And Funds For A Worthy Cause

The chefs were not made of iron, but their determination was, as a group of students, parents and educators gathered at the Sunday Farmers Market to prepare a feast and raise money for the Interact Club of Alhambra High School.

The annual Iron Chef Competition was on. 

The rules were simple: ingredients had to be green (a nod to the previous day’s St. Patrick’s Day holiday), and they had to come from the market. They had to be prepared on site, and within a certain amount of time.

The participants were focused, steady and stirring like mad on Sunday, as music and passersby swirled around them in a steady stream. The judges – Mayor Rob Schroder, Alhambra High principal Nermin Kamel, 2011 Man of the Year John Serles, and MUSD board member Vicki Gordon – sat high on their dias, ready to do the hard work of tasting the results and rendering their verdict.

Through it all, Dominic Lucido, the Interact club president, oversaw the chaos and put out the proverbial fires when and where he could, and where they weren’t being used for cooking food.

When it was over and the aromatic smoke had cleared, there were winners. They were:

• People’s Choice (most money collected): Martinez Jr. High School students led by Nick Lucido’s team;
• Third Place: MUSD librarian Mary Rittenhouse and MJHS principal Helen Rossi’s team;
• Second Place: parent Jill Scott’s team;
• First Place: Alhambra High School history teacher Kerry Cusack’s team.

Congratulations to all who participated in this most worthy event, which raised funds for the Little Flock Homes, a series of orphanages in India for children whose parents died of AIDS.