Hercules High Student Part of Winning Team in Annual Cooking Competition

On May 21, 2014, Kitchen@812 hosted its 3rd Annual Culinary Clash, a benefit supporting the dreams of aspiring food entrepreneurs.

The “Chopped” hit series-style competition included a secret ingredient revealed minutes before the competition began. As if there wasn’t enough heat in the Kitchen already, the secret ingredient added a little extra… habanero, red and green chili peppers!  

Each competing team included a dynamic trio of a Kitchen@812 chef, Jr. Chef from Hercules High School and Guest Chef from our Team Sponsors (Chevron, PG&E, Mechanics Bank and US Foods).  

For the 3rd year running, PG&E took the title as Kitchen@812’s Culinary Clash Champion. Led by Chef Mike Vizcarra of Tasty Zombies, Team PG&E captured the palettes of our judges with their winning dish.

To start, Team PG&E presented the judges with a cucumber citrus gelee to cleanse their palettes, followed with a sirloin tagliata with pepper coulis, garlic olive oil powder and apple couscous. The judges were then treated to a delicious honey semifreddo. With fierce competition, the road to culinary victory was no easy task.

Team US Foods, led by Chef Tara Shaia of Shaia Spice, came in 2nd place creating a dish that included fiery Moroccan couscous and rice pilaf with marinated beef and vegetable kabobs; completing the dish with grilled pineapple and a fresh chili/citrus coulis.

Team Chevron, led by Chef Tinisha Johnson of Truly Exquisite Catering, presented a mushroom couscous with sautéed vegetable chicken sausage, and seared steak drizzled with an orange chili sauce. Team Mechanics Bank, led by Chef Vince Khoe of Figticious Catering, presented a seared spice rubbed beef on quinoa and black bean pancakes with pineapple chili salsa with roasted peppers and onions.  During the competition, over 150 guests were entertained with live music, wine-tasting, and delicious bites from Kitchen@812 clients. 

The ultimate victory from this culinary showdown was bringing community together to raise funds for Kitchen@812 and support the dreams and passions of aspiring food entrepreneurs. 

As a non-profit food business incubator, Kitchen@812 is committed to providing resources and creating a space in Contra Costa County for entrepreneurs to establish successful food based-businesses.

To learn more about Kitchen@812, visit www.wccbdc.org. A special thank you to Kitchen@812’s 2014 Culinary Clash Sponsors: Presenting Sponsors: PG&E, Chevron, Mechanics Bank, US Foods The California Endowment, Smart & Final, Aidells, Ameriprise Financial Services, Copy World Berkeley, Four Fools Winery, Galaxy Desserts, Pear Street Bistro, Phillips 66, Ronald Fernando Photography, San Pablo EDC, Travis Credit Union, United Way of the Bay Area 

—Information submitted by Kitchen@812 | Business Development Center