Academy of Culinary Arts students at the third annual Wing Wars. (Photo by Craig Matthews/Atlantic Cape Community College)
An Ocean County trio will represent Atlantic Cape Community College's Academy of Culinary Arts at the Atlantic City Wing Fest on Saturday.
Three teams competed at the college's Mays Landing campus last week for a spot at the annual competition being held at the Golden Nugget Atlantic City Hotel and Casino.
ACCC held their own Wing War for the third time with two three-student teams and one two-student team given an hour to season, cook and/or fry their chicken wings with a uniquely crafted wing sauce.
Each team was scored by a three-judge panel that based the final tallies on presentation, creativity, wing taste and sauce taste.
“The Academy of Culinary Arts Wing Wars competition is more than just a culinary showdown, it's a celebration of skill and creativity in the kitchen,” said Joseph Sheridan, director of the Academy of Culinary Arts and Hospitality. “The students do this for bragging rights and the honor to serve their recipe to more than 1,000 guests at Wing Fest.
"As the students hone their culinary skills, they also learn to work as part of a team, and fosters community spirit between student chefs who share ideas, techniques and a common love for the craft of cooking," he added.
The winning recipe this year was created by twin sisters Amy and Danna Jimenez — culinary students — and Alyssa Pietropaolo, majoring in baking and pastry.
The winning team of Alyssa Pietropaolo, center, and twin sisters Danna and Amy Jimenez. (Photo by Craig Matthews/Atlantic Cape Community College)The trio cooked up Asian cola wings accompanied by a garlic scallion ranch sauce. .
“There were five or six other recipes that we wanted to do and this one wasn’t our first choice," said Pietropaolo, a sophomore who lives in Jackson. "Nobody liked it. It was at all the bottom of our lists.
"The restaurant I work at uses a barbecue root beer sauce, so I was thinking we could do different sodas. We had Pepsi on hand, so we went with that,” she explained. “Then, a friend of mine who is into Asian cuisine, gave us pointers like using yuzu (citrus fruit) and ponzu (made from yuzu juice, soy sauce and more), and to use ginger paste instead of fresh ginger to give it the ginger taste without harshness of ginger.”
Pietropaolo and the Jimenez sisters, who are both sophomores from Manahawkin, attended the Ocean County Vocational Technical School in Brick Township for culinary arts while they were in high school.
The trio are excited to represent the College and the ACA at Wing Fest.
“We worked really hard on these wings and I think it really paid off, so now we get to represent the school and show off what we can do.”
The runner-up team of first-year culinary majors Devon Devico and Mariah Salamanca created guava barbecue wings with a sweet red pepper mayo sauce.
The third-place team also comprised of first-year culinary majors Nicholas Abad, Chase Quintavalle and Samad Steele created tajin cilantro lime wings with a chimichurri ranch sauce.
The ACA was originally invited to participate and represent Atlantic Cape at the annual Wing Fest in 2023.
The culinary instructors decided to create a fun and competitive competition between the ACA’s culinary students to come up with the best wing sauce to represent the ACA and the college. Once at Wing Fest, the winning team must cook wings and make sauce for more than 1,200 attendees.
This year’s volunteer judges were ACA Chef Educator and alumnus Vincent Tedeschi, Atlantic Cape Senior Clerk and ACA alumna Chef Lauren Pavlis, and Cardinal Restaurant Chef/Owner Chef Michael Brennan.
CLICK HERE for more information on Saturday's Wing Fest.
(Story provided by Atlantic Cape Community College)
