After a successful 2023 2nd quarter meeting this week, AIP Marketing Alliance’s team members decided to see whose cuisine reigned supreme during our third trip to Mirepoix Cooking School in Royal Oak. In an Iron Chef-like showdown, Rick Kisser and Kym Kisser randomly split our employees into two teams as we competed in Battle Lasagna.

Rick’s team consisted of Dave Kisser, Tom, Marc, Kurt, Emmy, and Chris, while Kym’s team included Alice, Bella, Alyssa G., Colleen, Maggie, Becca, and Darron. Despite a few last-minute trade attempts to make the contest women vs. men, the teams decided to stick with their random draw for this culinary competition to see which team would get chopped.

Before AIP Marketing Alliance shares the results, let’s introduce you to Mirepoix Cooking School, located in Royal Oak. AIPMA has hosted three different cooking competitions at this location as they host private events called The Duel, where teams are given a menu of a main course and sides to create with their team members. Think of it as a Michigan-styled Kitchen Stadium straight out of Iron Chef.

The teams go through a couple of training sessions as the lead chefs explain how to create the recipes for the battle and also provide advice and support throughout the competition. To encourage team building through the event, Mirepoix also added a few delicious pre-made appetizers, some wine and beer, and the menus are designed to make the process fun and entertaining. You can check out some of the highlights in the video below.

For Battle Lasagna, both teams had to create lasagna dough from SCRATCH using only eggs, olive oil, salt, and semolina flour. That process took about an hour to make the dough, let it rest, boil the noodles, ice them down, and then layer the lasagna by alternating between pasta, Bolognese sauce, ricotta cheese, and mozzarella cheese.

Next, the teams had to make the rest of the dinner (which wasn’t judged) consisting of a tomato cucumber salad, garlic cheese bread, and a tiramisu dessert cup. Once the lasagna was done cooking, the team shared their respective meals together at the dinner table and assessed their cooking prowess.

Mirepoix then selected one of their staff members to judge the lasagna course. Rick’s team received a 10 for presentation and an 8 for taste. Kym’s team receive an 8 for presentation and a 5 for taste. Rick’s team wins! Despite the judging, everyone enjoyed the food and beverages during the Iron Chef showdown.

AIPMA’s team even had enough leftovers to take home after the event, as everyone enjoyed the experience. We hope you will check out “What’s Cooking at AIPMA?” to see how Mirepoix made our event memorable, fun, and social for our team.