Battle Of The Chefs Team Sundstrom

As an interior designer, I am occasionally asked to help with a charitable cause, and I am happy to do so.

The Battle of the Chefs was conceived by Debby Steiner, our local publisher of LUXE magazine. In a nut shell, there were five teams, each with six players: a notable chef, two sous chefs, an architect, a builder and an interior designer. The well known appliance maker, Miele, and their northwest showroom, Luwa, provided five cooking stations in their beautiful new showroom.

A few hundred on-lookers gawked, laughed and cajoled us as each team worked feverishly to incorporate two “secret ingredients” (wasabi and pears) into one entrée and one desert. A panel of judges tasted our concoctions and awarded prizes in the end.

I don’t pretend to be gifted nor talented in the kitchen, but I do like to have a good time and that’s just what I did. To see the proof check out this You Tube video. My humiliating segment is found from minute 2:35 to 2:55 (who knew that twenty seconds could be so long?!?). Though the picture above may suggest that I was some sort of help, I have to admit that I was more effective as a spy who infiltrated the other teams to glean what they were making and with what ingredients.

Our masterful chef, Johnathan Sundstrom, owns the fabulous restaurant Lark on Capitol Hill here in Seattle. Though we didn’t quite make first place, we did come close and each of our team members has a beautiful glass trophy to prove it. Personally, I think I’ll stick to designing excellent kitchens and leave the cooking to the pros….