ECC's Samurai Burger wins Burger Throwdown

After getting laid off from his job as an electrical engineer in 2008, Tony Gomez of Crystal Lake decided to start over.

Following the example of his mother, who owned and operated a restaurant, Gomez enrolled in Elgin Community College's culinary arts program.

“I thought it was time for something fun for a change,” Gomez said.

Last week, Gomez's decision was validated when he and his ECC teammates won first place in the third annual Burger Throwdown hosted by the American Culinary Foundation.

The ECC team's “Samurai Burger” beat out entries from eight college teams throughout the Chicago area, including two teams from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Chicago and Dominican University, last year's winner.

It was ECC's first time in the competition.

“We felt pretty good, especially (topping) Cordon Bleu,” Gomez said. “It felt great beating both teams.”

ECC's team took home $500 for its first-place finish in the competition, which was held at Consumers Packing Company, a Melrose Park meatpacking company that provided the beef.

The “Samurai Burger” combined American Angus beef with Japanese spices and vegetables. It took the team weeks to perfect.

“We wanted to pursue an Asian burger,” Gomez said. “We found out that last year's winner was an Asian burger so we decided to do a Samurai burger.”

They started with a spread made from shiitake mushrooms, ginger, hoisin sauce and soy sauce. They seasoned the burger patty with Chinese five-spice powder and white sesame seeds. They topped the burger with a slaw of cucumber, carrots and daikon radish tossed with a spicy Asian vinaigrette.

For a final touch, the students placed fried rice noodles on top of the salad — making for a complex, textured fusion of Eastern and Western flavors.

The burger topped entries from the College of DuPage, Joliet Junior College, Kendall College, Dominican University, Technology Center of DuPage, Joliet Job Corps Center and Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Chicago.

The members of the winning team from ECC were: Gomez, team captain Laurie Tokowitz of Schaumburg, Kevin Stack of Elk Grove Village, Bridget Mooney of West Dundee, Michael Hiller of St. Charles and Ken Stortz of South Elgin. They were coached by ECC culinary instructor Patrick Stewart.