Councilwoman Cheng Wins Laurels in Cooking Battle

Taking the honors Wednesday night at the first "" – a local take-off on the Food Network TV series "Chopped" – was a team composed of El Cerrito City Councilwoman Ann Cheng and two Benicia chefs.

The cooking competition with teams of Bay Area chefs and local politicians was held at a Pinole industrial park with contestants vying to create the best dish out of random ingredients.

The Culinary Clash, a fundraiser for the non-profit Kitchen@812, asked teams to plan and prepare a dish based on ingredients at hand, with a last-minute challenge of incorporating prickly pear-flavored jelly beans. 

A three-person team with Cheng as a guest chef and the chef and sous chef from Pappas Restaurant in Benicia took the prized rolling-pin award on the votes of three judges. Pappas Chef Patrick Robertson said that when he saw the jelly bean ingredient revealed, he immediately decided to "go Asian" in creating his dish. Joining him were Cheng and sous chef Ed Sullivan.

Cheng said it was .

Other guest chefs were Pinole City Councilman Roy Swearingen and Hercules City Councilwoman Myrna de Vera.

The four Culinary Clash chefs who competed were Robertson of in Benicia, Ismael Macias of Lark Creek Steak in San Francisco, Adriana Lopez-Vermut of Pica Pica Maize Kitchen in San Francisco  and Ian Marks of Beast and The Hare in San Francisco.

, located in the Pinole Shores Business Park, allows bakers, cooks, caterers others to use the commercial equipment and storage to prepare food items. It also offers business support and services at no charge.

Wednesday's event raised money for kitchen equipment and scholarships.

Charles Burress contributed to this article.

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