For the last several weeks, Jeanine and her team have been preparing for Open Table’s 30th anniversary. To mark the milestone, they organized a Chopped for Charity event to celebrate their history and to raise funds. We attended this evening and it proved to be both a tremendous success and near disaster.
Jeanine’s opening remarks were both humorous and poignant as she discussed the many challenges the organization faced and how they had to constantly adapt to unexpected circumstances. It was as if she knew what lie ahead. Government dignitaries included State Senator Jamie Eldridge and State Representatives Kate Hogan and Tami Gouveia. Open Table received honorary citations from both the Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives.
Music was provided by The Acton Music Project.
The competition, inspired by the popular TV show, featured a cooking competition and a ginger bread cookie decorating competition. The cooks included teams representing the Concord Police Department (“Culinary Operations Unit”), the Minute Man Arc (“MMAwesome”) and Gaining Ground (“Popcorn Sandwich”).
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The decorating teams included entrants from the Maynard Cookbook Club (“Tough Cookies”), the Concord Fire Department (“Fire and Icing”), the Fenn School (Fenn Foodies”), and the Rotary Club of Concord (“Cookie Monsters”).
The event was held at the Thoreau Club Camp Thoreau facility where tables were set up at the front of the venue, each equipped with an electric induction burner, food processor, and other necessary appliances and cooking tools. Two minutes into the 30 minute competition the power to all three cooking stations went dead. I investigated immediately and found all the electrical equipment plugged into a single circuit, the breaker for which was located in a locked equipment room and no one immediately available with a key. I dispatched a volunteer to find someone with a key while I identified nearby outlets on a different circuit. Thankfully, the extension cords in use allowed for connection to other circuits and power was restored briefly until those circuits overloaded, taking out power for the band, video lighting and AV system. I estimated the total load for all three stations to be about 50 amps. We would need three 20 amp circuits to keep all three teams in business and would need to restrict teams to use of either their induction stove or toaster oven but not both at the same time. Once we gained access to the breaker panel, I enlisted the help of a facilities guy to keep resetting the circuit breakers every time they tripped while I worked with others to identify which outlets belonged to which circuits and splitting the load accordingly. It took at least a half an hour to resolve the power situation with the band being rebooted more than half a dozen times. I felt sorry for the cooks who had to deal with on and off again stoves and appliances as well as a group of us reconfiguring power cords right under foot. Despite the chaos, everyone adapted and the show went on. The team from Gaining Ground took first place in the cooking competition and the Concord Fire Department won the decorating competition with a house on fire concept. I took photos through most of the evening when I was not working on the electrical issues. A complete set can be found here.