Chef John Schmidt cooked up a storm as a semifinalist in a national “Food Fight” competition on May 23 in Buffalo, New York. He received high marks from the judges but not enough to qualify for the final round.
Schmidt, an executive chef for Morrison Community Living, runs the kitchen at Village Shalom, crafting meals for residents living at the Overland Park Continuing Care Retirement Community.
Schmidt was one of eight Food Fight semifinalists chosen from a pool of 65 chefs nationwide. Each entry into the competition — sponsored by a group of product vendors in the food service industry — submitted an original recipe containing of least three pre-selected products. Schmidt impressed judges for the annual competition with a recipe for a Latin-themed pizza.
“I was surprised I was selected,” said Schmidt. “I was like, ‘no, there’s got to be another John Schmidt’ but I’m going to go and have fun.”
Outside of Village Shalom, Schmidt has a food truck centered on Asian and Midwestern comfort food fusion — combining elements of different culinary traditions. Schmidt used fusion to create his recipe, a flatbread pizza using ingredients such as barbacoa, fire-roasted tenderloin, queso fresco, avocado and lime.
With 15 years of kitchen experience. Schmidt prepared for Food Fight by running through his pizza recipe a few times. He made his pizza creation for Village Shalom residents to try at one of the retirement community’s quarterly events.
“It will be something different,” said Schmidt said before departing for Buffalo. “I’m going to go down there and make the best pizza I can. The chips will fall where they may.”
Schmidt was a contestant in the western region semifinals of Food Fight. Each chef reproduced the recipe they created. Schmidt was not among the four chefs selected to advance to the finals.