Chef

COSTA MESA — As a dramatic soundtrack played, Killybrooke Elementary School students chopped, stirred and cooked healthy gastronomic masterpieces using the secret ingredient — tomatoes — in hopes of beating out the competition. Team Food Revolution made chili and served it in a hollowed red bell pepper with chili-pepper corn muffins. But it was Team Veggie Monsters that took the top honor by only two points with a whole-grain pasta, marinara sauce and bruschetta for Killybrooke's "Iron Chef"-inspired cooking competition Monday in the school's multipurpose room.

NEWPORT BEACH — From her mother's kitchen "classroom," a top culinary school in New York and then hosting a national radio program, local resident and celebrity chef Jamie Gwen owes the journey to her most loyal fan: her mother. "We have been very, very blessed to be best friends from Jamie's early age, on up," Gwen's mother, Lana Sills, said Friday. "We are BFFs. " The duo are also partners in branding "Chef Jamie" as a nationally recognized culinary icon. Gwen hosts a live, weekly Southern California radio show, "Food & Wine with Chef Jamie Gwen;" has co-hosted on "Living Today," a Martha Stewart Living Radio program; and is a four-time cookbook author.

Editor's note: This corrects the relationship between Ryan O'Melveny Wilson and Richard N. Frank. After 26 years behind the stove, award-winning Five Crowns and SideDoor Executive Chef Dennis Brask has handed over his spatula to a new generation. The new executive chef at the neighboring establishments in Corona del Mar is Ryan O'Melveny Wilson, 30, the grandson of Richard N. Frank, who opened Five Crowns in 1965. Brask, 60, retired so he could spend more time with his family.

Local restaurateur Zov Karamardian has released a second cookbook, "Simply Zov. " The owner of Zov's restaurants gives the culinary-challenged 150 recipes that will allow anyone to mimic her award-winning abilities. "'Simply Zov' is ideal for the busy budding chef who has a family, a limited budget and wants to incorporate fresh ingredients like those found at farmers markets into their cooking," Karamardian said in a statement. "I hope to inspire people and introduce them to a world of flavor with recipes that are different, unique and functional.

For those who aren't sure how hot that serrano chili pepper is once it hits the soup, remember this: The seeds aren't what make the pepper hot; that's been a misnomer for years. What gives the pepper its heat are the veins inside it — at the base, not the tip. So if you don't want whatever it is you're cooking to be too hot, just cut a small vein out of the tip and you'll be OK. As for pomegranate, if you want to look cool around school, just buy a few pieces of fruit at the grocery store, roll them around on a hard counter top to "juicen them up," then stick straws in the top of them.

COSTA MESA — A graduate of Orange Coast College's culinary arts program won first place this week in a contest in which four top chefs went up against one another to see who could create an all-chocolate vehicle that actually moved. Award-winning Las Vegas pastry chef Chris Hanmer, a former resident of Costa Mesa, won $10,000 — not to mention a shot at fame on the TV screen. You can check it out on the Food Network at 6 p.m. Saturday. The contest, dubbed the Food Network Runaway Chocolate Challenge, will also air at 7 p.m. Sunday.

COSTA MESA — With the rise in popularity of reality-TV cooking shows and a growing demand for culinary education, chef Mark McDonald saw an opportunity to expand a small neighborhood café into something outside the traditional food-service model. In January, McDonald — chef and co-owner of the Old Vine Café in Costa Mesa — will partner with the Italian Institute for Advanced Culinary and Pastry Arts to take a group of about 25 people on a 10-day culinary adventure through southern Italy.

NEWPORT COAST — Laguna Beach restaurateur Azmin Ghahreman's Sapphire at School has been selected to provide meals for Sage Hill School in Newport Coast, beginning in August for the next school year. Sage Hill joins four other Orange County private schools that offer Mediterranean-style cuisine that emphasizes healthy eating. Ghahreman, owner of Sapphire Laguna restaurant, developed Sapphire at School in 2007 to provide students with a variety of healthy, restaurant-quality, globally influenced cuisine prepared daily by professional chefs.

Outfitted in tall white chef hats and green aprons, the Food Fighters faced off against the Blazing Hot Chili Peppers in a cooking showdown Monday at Killybrooke Elementary in Costa Mesa. Sixteen students in grades 4 to 8 participated in the Killybrooke Iron Chef competition, a pilot event sponsored by the school, the Network for a Healthy California and the Newport-Mesa Unified School District's Food Services Department. Students had 45 minutes to create a tasty, healthy dish using a secret ingredient: vegetables.

A new cookbook is making mouths water throughout Orange County. Cleverly titled "Orange County Fare: A Culinary Journey Through the California Riviera," the tome compiled by the Newport Beach-based Junior League of Orange County boasts hundreds of recipes from local celebrity chefs, luminaries and foodies. The book will be sold to benefit the league's community outreach projects Saturday at a culinary demonstration by local chef Zov Karamardian, of Zov's Bistro in Tustin and her other eponymous cafes in Newport Coast and Irvine.