May 13, 2009 COOKING UP A STORM Caballos Viejos (The Old Horses) win Red Bulls Iron Chef competition
Carlos Johnson, Juan Pietravallo, Jorge Rojas and Alfredo Pacheo proudly show off their trophies after winning the Red Bulls Iron Chef competition.
Mike Stobe/New York Red Bulls
By Michael Lewis
BigAppleSoccer.com Editor
New York -- The competition was fierce with dogged preparation, creative displays, some fine finishing touches and accusations that the "referees" were against one team.
A Red Bulls game?
Well, not exactly.
But it was close enough. It was the second annual Red Bulls "Iron Chef" Cook-Off at the ESPN Zone on Tuesday afternoon.
Six teams competed for the coveted title with Caballos Viejos -- The Old Horses -- winning it all. The team consisted of four Hispanic players team captain Juan Pietravallo (Argentina), Jorge Rojas (Venezuela), Alfredo Pacheco (El Salvador) and Carlos Johnson (Costa Rica). They totaled 64 points from a panel of five celebrity judges.
“They hit a home run with just about everything,” MSG play-by-play announcer and judge Steve Cangialosi said.
No -- stop the jokes right here. The Old Horses did not use any horse meat. They used a combination of South American flavors with their four courses of a “Hector” shrimp salad, salmon salad, sweet and sour chicken and steak and rice was.
Pietravallo was confident before the competition began.
"When people made the group, I looked at my teammates and I said, 'This is the best group,' " he said.
Asked if he tasted his food, the midfielder replied with a smile: "Excellent! So good!"
He was looking forward showing his wife the trophy.
"Today I come back to my house and say to my wife, 'Look at that. I am cooking better than you.' "
But wouldn't that force Pietravallo to cook dinner?
"No, no, no," he said. ""Me, I cook in the afternoon -- she at night."
Of course, not everything turned out the best for each team.
The rules were pretty straight forward. Each team of the six teams had 30 minutes with the same ingredients to cook up as many dishes as they could. Each team was given a chef from the ESPN Zone. The groups started about 10-15 minutes apart and were judged by the celebrities on their presentation, creativity and taste on a scale from 0 to 5. They were judged by CW11 sports anchor Lolita Lopez, New York Times soccer writer Jack Bell, El Diario La Prensa sports editor Mario Concha and Cooking Light food critic David Bonom, and Cangialosi. MSG's Red Bulls sideline reporter Tina Cervasio served as the host.
"My stomach finally settled down from last year's event," Cangialosi jokingly said. "The bottle of Tums comes out somewhere around the 25th minute mark."
Two regulars -- forward and team captain Juab Pablo Angel and goalkeeper Jon Conway -- did not participate.
Before the competition heated up, Red Bulls coach Juan Carlos Osorio, in a group (they were called the Tres Jefes) that included sporting director Jeff Agoos and assistant coach Richie Williams, was wondering if his participation might backfire from home.
"If my wife sees this and could be thinking, 'How come he never does it at home?' " he said.
Osoroio prepared his group's salad.
The Old Horses edged out The Four Horsemen team of Seth Stammler, Jeremy Hall, Albert Celades and Danny Cepero, who accumulated 63 points. The group conjured up a steak salad, salt-baked salmon with broccoli and pasta and chicken stir fry.
The group with the longest name -- Three New Yorkers and a Guy from Somewhere Near Australia -- took third place with 61 points and the final trophy. The team was comprised of Mike Petke, John Wolyniec, Carlos Mendes and New Zealander Andrew Boyens.
Boyens was disappointed his group did not receive higher grades.
"I feel we did better than actually what the points indicated," he said. "We had some quality dishes and some great tasting dishes. The presentation was unbelievable. so we feel a little . . . done by it.
"I did a lot of or work on the schmoozing side of things. but it didn't pay off."
Last year's winners, Undisputed, finished a disappointing fourth. That group included Luke Sassano, Sinisa Ubiparipovic, Danleigh Borman and newcomer Dominic Oduro. They were awarded Cooking For Dummies.
"We didn't finish anywhere. Dont know why," Borman said. "I think they were a bit harder on us because we were champs last year. . . . At least we were the first group that made the wall of fame."
Undisputed tried to entice the judges with a secret weapon that was not on any menu or preparation list -- brownies and ice cream.
"Yeah we were hoping that the brownies would steal their hearts," he said with a laugh.
But not everyone appeared to be satisfied at the end.
"I think the judges were against us! I think the judges were against us!" said Osorio while pointing toward the judges table.
He cannot criticize referees in game situations because of the threat of fines hanging over his head. There were no fines handed out Tuesday.
Of course, Osorio was only kidding.
"It was good fun," he said. "All the guys seem to be into it. They all participated. All contributed. It was good to see, that as a team, outside of the field that we still get along and the guys could have a good time together."
