FIU student Luis Mendizabal heats up the kitchen at Herald Chefs’ Challenge

Luis Mendizabal

Representing FIU’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (SHTM), 20-year-old student Luis Mendizabal won the 2005 Herald Chefs’ Challenge last month by preparing a meat he had never seen with ingredients that were not revealed until the last minute.

By sautéing the gamy kangaroo tenderloin, topping it with a red wine-chocolate sauce and then serving it alongside smoked shrimp over soba noodles, his meal, as judged by executive chef Dewey LoSasso of North One 10 restaurant, Herald food editor Kathy Martin and WFOR-CBS 4’s Lisa Petrillo, bested those of his two competitors.

“I was scared throughout the entire challenge and a little surprised that I won since the competition was tough, but I’m really excited. It felt great to have such an amazing experience,” admitted Mendizabal. “I had confidence that if I didn’t overwhelm myself and just kept the dishes simple, nothing too crazy, that I would put out a good plate with good food. I only hoped that would be enough to beat the other chefs.”

What started as a 12-person competition highlighting three schools with equal representation -- le Cordon Bleu, the Fort Lauderdale Art Institute and Florida International University -- eventually whittled down to an individual cookoff that pitted FIU schoolmates Alexia Apostolidis, Jovany Bandomo and eventual winner Mendizabal against one another. Three aspiring chefs were eliminated every round and the remaining contestants inched closer to the grand prize, two round-trip tickets to anywhere Spirit Airlines flies and an internship at LoSasso’s cozy upscale restaurant on Biscayne Boulevard.

SHTM Dean Joseph West said, “We are so proud of the caliber of our Hospitality students. These young men and women are reinforcing the already-strong reputation our school has for educating quality professionals.”

Mendizabal’s first solo foray into cooking came at the tender age of 8 when he cooked a rum cake with no help whatsoever. Not only did the house not burn down, but the dessert tasted delicious. It is because of early successes like this that, with his parents support, Mendizabal decided to pursue the culinary arts as a 15-year-old high school student, landing a job with a restaurant in his native Chiriqui in Panama.

Two years later, he extended his résumé by leaving for High Park, New York, where he earned a two-year associate’s degree at the Culinary Institute of America. As part of the program, he completed an internship at the Via Veneto restaurant in Barcelona, Spain, where he worked under the tutelage of chef Josep Muniesa. According to Mendizabal, Muniesa is one of the few “big name” chefs who is not afraid to get his fingers dirty and who also pays great attention to every cooking-related task, no matter how menial it may seem.

After earning his associate’s degree, the 19-year-old Mendizabal transferred to FIU where he is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in management. Naturally, with the move came a new job at another restaurant: this time, it was Ola Miami. As a chef at the well-regarded restaurant he met his mentor Douglas Rodriguez, the establishment’s main chef and co-owner. Mendizabal hopes Rodriguez’s work habits and cooking knowledge will rub off on him.

“I think the secret to my success so far has been my parent’s unending support and the fact that I always try to plan as far ahead as possible,” added Mendizabal.

Despite learning many recipes from cookbooks and having past experiences that have already taken him through restaurants in three different continents, the one thing the 20-year-old chef could not plan ahead for was the dish that would face him in the regionally televised (CBS-4) contest’s main event: kangaroo loins. Nevertheless, he used the rules to their fullest extent.

With his 15 minutes of planning time, Mendizabal used a few minutes to gain his composure (he had never seen this raw meat before). In doing that, he started thinking about what would make it taste great. He wrote down the ideas as they came to him, preparing a menu out of pure instinct that seemed like it could work. The next 45 minutes would be spent cooking the dish and making it look nice for the judges, whose criteria, in order of importance, included: taste, presentation, creativity, organization, marketability, sanitation, culinary prowess and technique.

Just like the rum cake that preceded this meal by 12 years, not only did Mendizabal not burn down the kitchen at North One 10 restaurant, he impressed the judges so much that he won the contest, got the plane tickets and now works as an intern at that very place where he defeated the kangaroo.

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