'Chopped' chef talks food with CCTI culinary students

When he was nine years old, Darius Peacock’s mother bought him a Betty Crocker cookbook for his birthday. He soon found out that as a latchkey kid, the recipes would come in handy for him to eat.

Now he is a two-time executive chef champion of the popular TV program, “Chopped.” Recently he visited Carbon County Technical Institute to speak with culinary students about food, life, and fulfilling dreams.

From food to friendship

Peacock grew up in Coney Island. When asked by a student how he met A. J. Burke their culinary teacher, he replied with a smile.

“I found A.J. dropped on my doorstep at my home in New Jersey and he was looking really sad.”

The truth is Peacock met Burke at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York where both had applied for executive chef positions. Burke is currently Executive Chef and Culinary Instructor at CCTI where he teaches 37 students.

“Darius is my best friend and a colleague,” said Burke. “I believe those students of mine who want to have culinary careers can begin with more than entry level positions and he’s here to give them some added inspiration to do just that.”

Peacock, a graduate of Baltimore International Culinary College, is currently a district manager for Chartwells, a food service company for K-12 schools across the country. Formerly, he was executive chef for Hilton and Marriott hotel restaurants in New Jersey and has cooked meals for the New York Giants, the Jets, the Nets and the New Jersey Devils.

Recipes for life

Peacock began his presentation to the class by stating the obvious. “Everyone has to eat so food’s been around forever.” He then remarked that eating is both historical and cultural.

“Food brings people together. Eating is not just about what’s on the table. “It’s nostalgic. It is the cornerstone of relationships. It’s all encompassing.”

He became two-time champion of “Chopped” by defeating renowned master chefs from high-end restaurants with what Peacock calls his “street education.” His triumphs made his friends and family proud of his accomplishments, but the lessons he learned in the kitchens about life have been more valuable than the food he has prepared or the money he has won.

“Food is about kindness. If the girl at WaWa is making you a sandwich and is wearing a name tag, then address her by her name so you make a personal connection,” he said. “And when you’re in the company of people that you admire, you will learn more about who you are and what it takes to become a better you.”

The chew factor

When on each episode of “Chopped”, which was filmed through an exhausting 14 hour day, Peacock and his opponents had to make an appetizer from a mystery basket of three ingredients. They were given just 30 minutes to prepare and cook the appetizers for three master chef judges to taste. The same procedure was repeated for entrees and desserts.

“Good food is about texture and color and taste. I made grilled lobster puree for an appetizer that the judges liked and my entree was grilled pork chops with watercress salad with fried taro root chips,” said Peacock. “I wanted the taro root to have the texture of potato chips, but they came out mushy. I worried that I might get chopped, but the judges actually liked the taste of the taro with one calling the root chips, “a pleasant accident.”

Peacock told the class that the only way you can really tell if someone loves your food is evidenced by a clean plate when the person is done eating.

He then told the students that people in the Northeast do not know how to eat to acquire the full flavor of food.

“To enjoy flavor, we have to chew our food longer so we can appreciate the taste of what we eat,” he said. “We chew once or twice and then we swallow and miss out on the rich taste of what a great meal can offer.”

The $10,000 dessert

Peacock emphasized to the culinary class that making great tasting food is about preparation and practice. To prepare himself for “Chopped,” he practiced making dishes in a friend’s kitchen, essentially taking three ingredients that normally don’t go together and cooking them into a tasty meal.

Having had worked as a pastry chef, his confidence in winning the second show, “Champions of Chopped” was sky high against his one remaining opponent.

“I was ready to make my $10,000 dessert,” he said. I looked at the judges and said to myself, ’I’m going to make your mouth dance and your tongue happy.’ ”

Peacock, a big man who kidded about his difficulty with making food presentable on a plate with his ‘bear paw hands’, won the money with his dessert of chestnut mousse with a pomegranate sauce. His total prize amounts for winning both shows and being crowned the Chopped Champion of Champions was $20,000.

Food is life

Those students in Burke’s culinary class who want to pursue careers in the food industry were intrigued with Peacock’s presentation and at least one, Paige Card, is already working in the food business as a dietary hostess at St. Luke’s Hospital in Lehighton.

“Food and healthcare is very important today,” said A.J. Burke. “And cooking for vegans and people with food allergens is very challenging. Paige is learning that to feed meatloaf to 17 people might require that you make it 17 different ways.”

“I’ve been cooking for my three siblings for a long time,” said Card, who aspires to become a dietician. “And I got quickly bored using recipes.” Her favorite foods to make are stuffed shells and peanut butter pie, but at CCTI, she has cooked some very unusual dishes.

“I made steamed and fried octopus,” she said with a laugh. “The tentacles were hind of chewy.” Card also had the inenviable experience of scraping the meat off of a pig’s head and face.

Peacock’s personal favorite food is what he calls, “peanut butter melt and jelly extravaganza on toasted potato bread” accompanied by a glass of very cold milk.

He encouraged the students to “practice your craft” no matter what they decide to do in life and to remember that, “you’re not as good as you were yesterday and “as a chef, you’re only as good as your last dish.”

“Be confident in your ability,” he said, “and no matter how high you achieve, be a good person.”

Junior Dylan Kurtz, who’s been cooking since he was six years old and wants to become an executive chef, came away from the presentation with a new understanding about food preparation.

“I learned that you have to know your audience and the demographics of the people you feed.”

Peacock sees food as a universal foundation to to bring people of different races and cultures together in what he described as a troubled world we live in.

“The common food that everyone eats is rice and that could be the main ingredient for bringing all the cultures and races together.”

Darius Peacock left A. J. Burke’s students thinking that food can become a powerful tool to invite people of the world to sit down together to enjoy a meal at the dinner table of life.