Jan. 25, 2010

Photo Gallery

ANAHEIM, Calif. -

Complete Easton California College Media Day Coverage

Gill's Interview with Eric Sorenson

Head Coach Jason Gill participated in the second annual ESPN Zone Anaheim Cooking Challenge held at Downtown Disney on Friday morning. The event was also used as the 2010 Easton Southern California Baseball Media Day, where Gill was interviewed by collegebaseballtoday.com's Eric Sorenson.

The cooking portion of the day saw Gill and 10 other head coaches from the West Coast Conference, Big West, Pac-10 and Mountain West compete in an "Iron Chef"-style cook-off. Coaches teamed with an ESPN Zone chef to prepare an entree in a 20-minute time period and present their creations to a panel of judges. The dishes were graded on presentation, creativity, and most importantly taste. Along with competing for top honors in all three categories, the coveted "Top Chef" honor was also awarded for the highest overall score.

After a short demonstration from ESPN Zone's Chef Tom, the coaches were asked to create a dish from various ingredients. Gill went second behind last year's winner, USC's Chad Kreuter. Coach Gill turned-in a stellar dish of three tacos, earning nothing but praise from the three judges on hand.

Unfortunately for Gill, neither the primacy nor recency effect were in his favor, as it seemed his dish got lost in the confusion of all the other food that passed over the judge's table over the course of the event, resulting in no awards for the LMU skipper.

Fullerton's Dave Serrano, who won last year's "Dug Out" award (lowest scoring entree), turned his game around on Friday with his spicy chicken taco dish he dubbed "The Hot Corner." His open-faced fajita-style soft tacos with cilantro and tomatoes impressed the judges and won-out amongst the other taco dishes presented.

UC Santa Barbara Head Coach Bob Brontsema picked up his second-career "Best Presentation" award, winning over the judges with his plating of red bell peppers to read "UCSB" on the side of his dish. Cal Poly's Larry Lee took home the "Best Taste" award with some cajun tacos. Spelling the end of a string of Big West award recipients was Pepperdine's Steve Rodriguez, who was named Top Chef for the best overall score with a chicken alfredo dish. The most surprising turn of events came as Kreuter, last year's Top Chef, took home both the "Dug Out" and "Kitchen Nightmare" awards for his chicken/pasta creation. Kreuter was awarded Paula Dean's "My First Cookbook", an Easy Bake Oven, a bottle of Pepto Bismol and a fire extinguisher for his efforts.

Friday's Southern California event was the first of a two-part statewide college baseball media event. Northern California will have its media day this week on the campus of Stanford University.

Also competing in the ESPN Zone Cooking Challenge were Steve Rousey (Cal State Northridge), Mike Gillespie (UC Irvine), Doug Smith (UC Riverside), John Savage (UCLA), and Rich Hill (San Diego).