GALESBURG — The fusion of a preferred Chinese language avenue meals and a standard quesadilla nabbed a Galesburg girl the grand prize within the Hy-Vee Finest Beef Cooking Competitors.
Michelle Kim’s Jianbing Impressed Quesadilla blew the judges away at a cooking competitors Aug. 16 on the Iowa State Honest, the place she was congratulated on stage by rapper and producer 50 Cent.
“Actually it is nonetheless very surreal to me,” Kim mentioned. “I am unable to consider this truly occurred.”
Chef and actuality tv star Paul Wahlberg mentioned Kim’s dish was “actually superior” and superstar tv pitmaster Moe Cason advised Kim she may construct a enterprise making the quesadillas.
Kim’s win stems from a good friend sending her a hyperlink to the competitors a couple of weeks in the past.
“The second she despatched me the hyperlink, I had a recipe concept,” Kim mentioned. “I’ve by no means entered any form of recipe or cooking contest earlier than.”
The recipe was impressed by a visit to Chicago a pair months in the past the place Kim tried Jianbing for the primary time.
Jianbing is a standard Chinese language avenue meals much like a crepe.
“It was scrumptious,” Kim mentioned. “I took inspiration from that and mixed it with a standard quesadilla.”
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Kim’s recipe begins with marinating beef sirloin in contemporary garlic and ginger, brown sugar, hoisin sauce, soy sauce or Tamari and rice wine vinegar.
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Whereas the sirloin is grilled, the marinade is diminished to a sauce.
Then a tortilla is encrusted with mozzarella cheese, scallions and black sesame seeds.
Contained in the tortilla goes extra cheese, the meat and the sauce, together with quick-pickled julienned radishes and carrots, contemporary cucumber, jalapeño and cilantro — and fried wontons for crunch.
The unique concept because it got here to Kim solely wanted minor tweaking earlier than she submitted the recipe to the competitors.
“The concept was the entire package deal to start out. It was a matter of getting all of the substances and taking a crack at it,” Kim mentioned of her creation.
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After being named the finalist within the competitors for the Quad Cities area, which incorporates Galesburg and its two Hy-Vee shops, Kim was paired with Brandon Zawada, chef of the Hy-Vee retailer in Milan.
The 2 ready the dish collectively on a Hy-Vee Fb Reside look on Aug. 12.
Then it was off to the Iowa State Honest for the ultimate competitors, the place it was as much as Zawada to execute Kim’s creation for a panel of superstar judges. Zawada may ask Kim questions on making ready the dish, however he needed to do the entire cooking.
“It was not practically as worrying as I anticipated it to be,” Kim mentioned.
Kim was the one feminine among the many 5 finalists from Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Minnesota.
For her profitable recipe, Kim was awarded a yr’s price of groceries from Hy-Vee — and a bottle of fifty Cent’s high-end champagne.
“I used to be actually proud of it,” Kim mentioned of her dish. “I am any person who is continually attempting to study as a lot as I can about meals and cooking. I at all times suppose I can study extra or do higher.”
Watch now: A video tour of this yr’s Illinois State Honest
