Beechie’s Place, a restaurant in Meadow Lands, Pennsylvania hosts its 3rd Annual Iron Chef Cook-Off. This year Beechie’s Place executive chef Lane McFarland is challenging chef Jason Capps of Bella Sera, from Canonsburg. The winner of the competition will claim the title of Iron Chef and bragging rights for an entire year.
For the last two Iron Chef competitions, Beechie’s has had their executive chef and sous chef face off cooking 4 dishes each with a secret ingredient in front of their customers in the dining room. This year’s competition faces off two award-winning chefs: chef Lane A. McFarland with the 2012 Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association “Restaurateur of the Year” and chef Jason Capps with the 2008 International Caterers Association Star Award. Last year each dish category had a specific secret ingredient which was decided on by the employees of the restaurant. This year chef Lane and chef Jason are opening the decision to the public. Each dish will have 4 options for the public to vote on at the restaurant and online. The most popular ingredient for each dish will be the chefs’ secret ingredient. The day of the competition, the chefs will have the day to prepare any necessary ingredients before the competition begins. Starting at 5 p.m., the chefs will be cooking their dishes in front of the customers in the Beechie’s Place dining room. Each chef will enter a dish in the following categories: Appetizer, Entrée, Sandwich, and Dessert. There is no cover charge for the competition and every customer can order directly off of the Iron Chef Menu. For every dish a customer orders, they are able to give the Chefs a 1 to 5 rating based on taste, presentation, usage of the secret ingredient, and originality.
Both chefs serve together on the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association Board of Directors and are very eager and excited about this year’s competition. Each says that it will be a blast cooking alongside each other for the first time, and making a friendly competition of it.
