Johnson: It's a scramble to the finish

2013-04-19 16:08:25












"A forensic anthropologist," she said.




Egg yolks flew. Hash browns went splat on the floor.

How no one was burned from the hot skillets or gut-gouged by a knife I will never understand.

"Watch your fingers!" Karamardian shouted repeatedly as she dashed about.

As kids and chefs flailed about him, I noticed Alexander calmly and quite deftly taking a red bell pepper apart and reducing it to even julienned slices. He stopped and looked up at me with an expression that said, What? You want me to teach you?

"I learned this by watching 'Iron Chef' and 'Chopped,'" he finally said before getting back to the task before him.

"Scary," Juliette said, trying to concentrate amid the chaos while carefully tending to a pan of eggs. "You just don't want to hurt yourself."

Her eggs, which she has topped with cheese, tomato and basil, are finished perfectly.

It isn't until Karamardian summons help from her pasty chef, Michelle Bracken, that the chaos eases. She calms 7-year-old Johnny, who is rather wildly wielding a knife he is supposed to be using on a few zucchinis.

"Hey, I do this all the time!" the boy protests. "I've been helping my dad in his catering business since I was 5!"

His father, Phil Knoke, who goes by the name "O.C. Rock 'N' Roll Chef, backs up Johnny, who prefers the name Wolfy.

"He was serving at 3 better than some of my chefs on the line," he says. "And he can pull flavors out of meals better than a lot of my guys."

The winner of the competition finally is named. It is Marissa.

She deserved it.

Watching the video she submitted, you at times forget the person putting together the strawberry lemonade meringue pie is an 11-year-old. It was edited precisely, featured captioning and, more to the point, was so well done it seemed possible for even a failed baker like me to make the pie.

Also, she is a kid with her own internet baking show,

"I just started it in November," Marissa said. "I get inspired by professionals who do it."

So she gets no help?

"She invents her own recipes," her mother, Maryanne said. "I just hold the camera."

In the end, I was glad I went. Amid the mess and fury of that morning I, indeed, learned something.

It isn't just that in 20 or so years we all will be shelling out top dollar to eat at Wolfy Knoke's restaurant, but that I finally learned how to scramble and cook eggs properly.

Zov Karamardian, though she doesn't know it, taught me that.

It is all in the wrist, people, and the tilt of the pan.

Contact the writer: or 714-796-2265

© Copyright 2010 Freedom Communications. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Site Map