'Top Chef' winner, UM chef face off

MLive.com - MI, USA - A culinary battle called the "Dorm Room Challenge" on Sunday in Ann Arbor had all the ingredients for great fun, if not high cuisine.

It pitted an outspoken and nationally known television chef against a local favorite from Hillel at the University of Michigan.

Ilan Hall, winner of last season's "Top Chef" TV show on Bravo, and Hillel's so-called "Kosher King" Emil Boch had a short list of both food and kitchenware with which to perform their culinary magic.

They were given identical amounts of 22 kosher foods - things that might be found in a student's dorm room, such as peanut butter, bagels, yogurt, bananas and hummus. They were also given $20 to purchase additional kosher or pareve foods - those prepared without meat, milk or their derivatives.

Each chef could prepare their two dishes - a main course and a dessert - using only a microwave, electric griddle and an electric kettle.

Both chefs admitted they were nervous before cooking on a lit stage in front of several hundred people during the Sunday afternoon fundraiser at U-M's Hillel Green Auditorium.

"I'm a little jittery," Boch said, but he had a menu planned for the competition.

Hall said he was going to wing it and let his "fingers do the magic," adding, "I know all the foods; my problem is over-thinking things."

Though not a kosher chef, Hall said that element of the challenge would not be a problem.