Templeton secondary was a good place to be if you were hungry Wednesday. The East Side high school staged Iron Chef 2012—modelled on the popular television show Iron Chef, in which participants battle for kitchen supremacy by designing meals around a particular ingredient in a timed cook-off.

Templeton’s elaborate production, complete with an audience of students and staff, was set up in its cafeteria. The competition, which pit six teams of three culinary arts students apiece against each other, is in its ninth year. “It started small and it just got bigger and bigger, so we’ve also incorporated our film program now and the students go around and film it and interview as if it were the TV show to get some experience in using cameras,” explained principal Ellen Roberts. “They get fancy. It looks like restaurant fare. It’s quite astonishing, the quality.”

Templeton contestants planned their three-course meals around not-so-secret ingredients of pasta or noodles and practiced during two days of dress rehearsals.

“They had to make [the food] all from scratch. They all had to come up with their own recipes. The teacher didn’t say this is what you’re making. They had to play with it and come up with different things. They had an hour to do it working continuously on all three [courses],” Roberts said.

Wednesday’s winning team included Carla Obando, AJ Livramento and Samuel Wong, who christened their group Japafilackese, after the ethnic origins of each of the three members.

They served carrot puree in smoked salmon dill ravioli with ginger vinaigrette salad for the appetizer, followed by seared cod with squid ink angel hair pasta in red Thai curry sauce with basil tuille and coconut foam for the main entrée.

Their featured dessert was coconut riso in agar blanc mange with sweet balsamic reduction and almond spiral.

Rob Feenie, Canada’s first Iron Chef, Dale MacKay, winner of Top Chef Canada, Dennis Green, former chef at Bishop’s restaurant and Dan Close, owner of Dan Close Food Concepts, judged the event.

Roberts described Obando, who captured a gold medal in cooking in the 2011 Skills Canada national competition, as quiet, unassuming and talented.

This year marked the 17-year-old Grade 12 student’s third time in the Iron Chef challenge. Coming up with a winning menu took work.

“I had no idea when I first started. I was flipping through cookbooks trying to get some ideas. I decided to be more original and creative—something new a normal person wouldn’t just think of,” she said. “We were pretty much relieved after the competition because we worked hard for it.”

Obando said the team worked well together, but presenting dishes to well known chefs is “scary.”

“It’s really stressful. You have to be efficient and you have to know your timeline,” she added. “[But] it was fun. Team work is awesome.”

Roberts sees the competition as more than entertainment.

“It’s fun, the whole student body knows about it. They talk about it and watch it, but I also really respect that it’s an applied skill that the students are taking very seriously,” she said. “It is a career path for some of them—whether they’re going to work in a kitchen behind the scenes as a line cook or go off and become a chef. The university track isn’t for everybody. …It’s important for kids and for families to recognize and value the skills as an option.”

noconnor@vancourier.com

Twitter: @Naoibh