WASHINGTON — There’s the “Iron Chef” cooking competition, then there’s the iron chef competition that uses military field rations.
On Saturday, at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, the third annual MRE Cook-Off took place. In this event, contestants were asked to transform MREs — or “Meals Ready-to-Eat” — into tasty entrees. Mind you, MREs don’t taste very good, so this was quite a challenge.
The contestants picked the meals blindly. Then, they had to conceptualize some sort of dish and cook it using only a sterno flame. The contestants were allowed to bring in their own secret ingredients.
“Whatever they could fit in what Marines call their cargo pocket on their camo uniform,” said Gwenn Adams, a spokeswoman for the Marine Corps museum. “It’s basically a gallon-sized bag.”
Once the competition began, the three judges seemed impressed with the creative concoctions. “The presentations are really surprising,” said one of the judges, Dumfries Mayor Gerald Foreman, a retired Marine major. “They’ve done an outstanding job.”
The contestants came up with some pretty creative names: One was called “Eat at Your Own Risk.” A dessert was called “Brownie Thingy with a Bailey drizzle.”
Of all the cooking teams, “Best Entree” went to two sisters — Tracy and Kathryn Gamble — who live in Seattle and Chicago, respectively. They took home the “Golden Canteen Cup” award.
What’s their secret ingredient?
“Bacon,” they chimed in.
“Bacon.”
While she has no idea how to explain the experience to her friends back home, Tracy Gamble says the event “was a blast. I have a whole new respect for MREs. I had no idea what they were before.”
Juan Iturriga, a Marine, and his 12-year-old daughter, Anna, didn’t exactly volunteer to be part of the cook off. Rather, he says his wife, Samantha Iturriga, thought it would be a cute idea. “Thank you so much for signing me up for this,” he says with a laugh. “So that’s how it happened and here I am.”
He and his daughter called their main dish “Beef Extravaganza.” It’s described as savory with a little fiery taste to it. That dish didn’t win, but they came in second place for their dessert.
“We ended up doing an almond pound cake, with apple turnover, with a little bit of peanut butter in between and then a fruit mix on top,” Iturriga said. “[We] used the fruit mix juice, which absorbed into the pound cake and it turned out to be really good. As you can see it’s all gone.”
The only down side? Now Juan’s wife, Samantha, wants to put he and his daughter to work.
With a laugh, she says, “I can’t wait until we get home, now they can cook for me.”
