This past weekend I covered the GOHO Gourmet Kitchen at the International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago. We had a three-day schedule of guest celebrity chefs and authors come in and give a cooking demo. The schedule was pretty tight over the three day period and there were no breaks in-between.

As each guest chef arrived on site, they found all their prep work done and their station setup on stage. Prior to the show, each chef and cookbook author was asked to submit a prep and ingredient list. Whole Foods provided the food but the prep work was done by eight hard working students from The International Culinary Schools at the Illinois Institute of Art in Chicago.

For three days, these eight students chopped, minced, sliced and measured out all the ingredients for such chefs as Masaharu Morimoto, Tyler Florence, Ming Tsai, Stephanie Izard, Nathan Lippy, Paula Deen, Renée Behnke, Suvir Saran and Rick Bayless to name a few. Tucked away behind the stage was a prep room that was filled with glass bowls, kitchen utensils of all kinds, All-Clad cookware, KitchenAid blenders, mixers and food processors. KitchenAid and All-Clad were sponsors of the GOHO Kitchen Theater.

Before each chef came on stage, Beth, the stage manager would come out and make sure that the stage was cleaned and prepped for the next chef. Beth made sure that KitchenAid stovetop was spotless. When Beth was done, the students would bring out the ingredients and set up the positions of each item based on whatever instructions the chef had given them.

For each chef, the students would get to stand on stage with the chef and “sous” for them. In groups of two they would each take turns on the stage. The culinary students were very professional and some point I was wondering if these kids knew how to have fun. They were all serious in front of the audience and performed their duties to the best of their abilities. But no fret, one wise crack from the guest chef and the students would grab a glance at their classmate across the stage and crack a smile.

So what was going on backstage while a chef was on-stage? Considering the schedule we had over the three day period, there was a lot of pots and dishes that had gotten used. The vastness of the great hall that the event was in was enough to mask any noise that was created back stage. For the audience, all they saw was a black curtain. Some of the students were prepping for the next chef, while others were cleaning and washing dishes.

At the end of each day, whatever demo food was left over was snacked on by the stage staff and the students. On one of the days, there was some leftover Pumpkin Pancake batter from the Hearty Boys demo and they made sure that none of that went to waste! Yumm!

Most of the guest chefs were very gracious and did not hesitate to give props to their sous chefs and to the students in the back area.

On the third day, there was a cancellation of one of the guest chefs and one of their instructors, Maria Selas, at The International Culinary Schools at the Illinois Institute of Art had a surprise scheduled for them. There was going to be a cook-off! The students would be put into two groups and compete against each other. Maria had told me the day before and I knew these students would be excited when they found out.

The next day I was running late and missed one of the shuttles from my hotel and missed the moment when the students found out. I really wanted to be there and capture the moment when they found out. The announcement was made just prior to my arrival on site that morning. Damn…

Each of the students would have 15 minutes to prepare a dish that would then be judged by a panel. Each of the students kept focused and kept to the task at hand, take whatever ingredients that is in the kitchen and make a dish. They had to used what was in the pantry and in the fridge, most of which were left over ingredients from the two days prior. After the first four students completed their dishes, they were put out and the audeince then came crashing the stage hoping to get a sample of the cuisine. The second set of students came up and did their dishes and once again the stage was overrun with audience members. I’m not sure that anyone “won” the competition, but you can be sure that each of their dishes was done with the same zeal and determination of the guest chefs they helped these last few days.

None of the students had illusions of grandeur in their quest for culinary greatness. Each one of them knew that lots of hard work, lots of repetitive teaching and practice was going to mold them into the future chefs that we will know in the years ahead.

One of the students, Rebecca Hull, will be pursuing a Food Engineering Degree when she completes her program at the Institute. Eric Vier said when he is done he wants to travel and cook around the world.

Here’s what the students made on their day on-stage:

Rebecca Hull
Roasted Beet Salad with Caramelized Pears

Lynn Beasley
Linguine Pasta tossed with Fried Panchetta and Rosemary

Brittnay Sudlow
Asian Coleslaw Salad with Orange/Chili Vinaigrette

Eric Vier
Steamed Mussels with Roasted Vegetables

Patrick Brown
Mariated Chicken Kabobs w/Feta and Vegetables

Andrew Denton
Seafood Pasta made with Shrimp, Mussels and Squid Ink Pasta served with a Cream Reduction Sauce

Nicole Scherff
Cold Potato & Green Bean Salad with an Italian Vinaigrette
Warm Beet Green Salad with Honey Carrots & Beets

Nicole Montalbano
Chicken Kabobs with an Asian Coleslaw w/Sweet Vinaigrette

I applaud these students and their hard work. As a former cooking school manager, I know how important it is for prep work to be done properly for a cooking demo.

Remember these names, you will see lots of good things from them in the near future.