Jan. 23, 2010

Rodriguez named Top Chef

Pepperdine head coach Steve Rodriguez earned the Top Chef award at the Second Annual Coaches Cooking Challenge at the ESPN Zone at Downtown Disney.

The winning dish for Rodriguez was spicy chicken fettuccini alfredo.

Rodriguez was one of a dozen Southern California-based baseball coaches in the competition. Each coach was given 20 minutes to prepare the entrée and a panel of three judges rated each on several categories, including creativity, presentation and taste.

Dave Serrano of Cal State Fullerton earned the creativity award for “The Hot Corner”, his spicy chicken tacos. Bob Brontsema of UC Santa Barbara received the best presentation award for spelling “UCSB” in red peppers atop his pasta dish. Larry Lee (right) of Cal Poly won the best taste award for his double tortilla tacos.

Chad Kreuter of USC, last year’s Top Chef, finished last this time, earning a Paula Dean beginner’s cookbook, a bottle of Pepto Bismol, an Easy-Bake Oven and a miniature fire extinguisher.

Other competing coaches included Steve Rousey of Cal State Northridge, Mike Gillespie of UC Irvine, Doug Smith of UC Riverside, Jason Gill of Loyola Marymount, John Savage of UCLA and Rich Hill of San Diego.

(photo courtesy of Cal Poly Media Relations Office)