CSUN University News Clippings

Basketball coach Bobby Braswell takes part in Big West cookoff

(October 14, 2009)

ANAHEIM– Call Big West Media Day an hour-long episode of “Top Chef: Hardwood” — or “Hell’s Kitchen 2.”

Men’s and women’s basketball coaches from five Big West schools donned aprons, wielded spatulas and fired up hotplates for the ESPN Zone Cookoff Challenge just before lunchtime on Tuesday.

“Do we get a playbook?” one basketball coach asked ESPN Zone Anaheim executive chef Tom Keaveny as he sautéed garlic and oil in a skillet to demonstrate how he prepares a penne with pesto and sundried tomatoes.

Amused, Keaveny, who knows as much about the zone press as his onlookers know about a port sauce reduction, shook his head “No.”

Still, the coaches were game for the season-kickoff cookoff. The men’s and women’s head basketball coaches from each school — UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, UC Riverside and Cal State Northridge – paired up in front of a couple of hotplates at the three cooking stations that took center stage.

The ingredients had been prepped for their use: the penne, fettuccine and rigatoni boiled; the garlic chopped; the vegetables sliced and diced; the shrimp shelled; the grilled chicken cubed; and a marinara, pesto and Alfredo sauce made. All these coaches-turned-chefs had to do was cook … or burn.

Each team had 20 minutes – a basketball half – to prepare two dishes: one that replicated Keaveny’s creation and one that was entirely the coaches’ choice. A panel of three judges – Angel Stadium executive chef Dave Dekker, Keaveny and I (Register sports columnist and foodie Marcia C. Smith) – sampled the creations and scored each on taste, presentation and creativity.

We use “creativity” liberally as some dishes were slam dunks while others were, well, air balls.

A winner (Top Chef Award) and loser (The Kitchen Nightmare Award) were selected at the conclusion of this event, the first of its kind with the league’s basketball coaches, who soon officially begin team practices for the 2009-10 season.

“This was a fun event and a great way to get the coaches to loosen up and show another side of themselves,” said Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball coach Bob Burton. “We’re a really close-knit group, not so competitive in the kitchen, though.”

Click on “More Photos” to see a slideshow of the contest and its winners.

Feeling out of their element, Bobby Braswell (left), the Cal State Northridge men’s basketball coach, shares his cooking misadventures with Cal State Fullerton basketball coaches Marcia Foster and Bob Burton, on Tuesday at the ESPN Zone Anaheim’s Big West Coaches Cookoff Challenge. TEXT BY MARCIA C. SMITH/THE REGISTER, PHOTO BY ROD VEAL/THE REGISTER

Publication: Orange County Register