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Austin is tops in ‘Cutthroat’ cooking

Chef is FDSH, Iowa Central grad

-Submitted photo by the Food Network FDSH graduate Colton Austin, left, with fellow contestants Kayla Ast, Omar Saber and Nikiena Sunbury are shown at the start of Round 1 of “Cutthroat Kitchen,” in this photo by the Food Network. Austin’s episode airs Wednesday and Thursday, and will feature the students joining a clique to make a breakfast, creating a sack lunch, and trying to prep a snack while standing inside a locker.

A BLT kabob recipe, along with some legal sabotage of a competitor, propelled Colton Austin to victory in a recently televised cooking competition.

Austin, a graduate of Fort Dodge Senior High School and Iowa Central Community College, won $8,700 on the ”Fast Times at Cutthroat High” episode of Food Network’s ”Cutthroat Kitchen.”

”I kind of just blew up with excitement,” he said, recalling the moment when he learned he won the competition.

That moment came last summer when the episode was recorded in Los Angeles. He had to keep his victory a secret until after it aired last week.

”It was very, very hard,” he said.

Austin, who now works at a restaurant in Minneapolis, Minnesota, said he was asked almost every day how he fared on the show. He said when he was asked if he won, he sometimes joked that it would be nice to take first place.

On the show, he faced three other young chefs. They had to prepare a high school breakfast, make a sack lunch from items picked at a cafeteria serving line and prepare an after-school snack while standing inside a locker.

Each competitor had $25,000 they could use to help themselves or sabotage a competitor.

For the breakfast, Austin made a toast cup with sauteed onions.

For the lunch, he made a roast beef slider with side salad.

The BLT kabob with garlic and Parmesan chips was his after-school snack. He said he had one minute to grab all the needed ingredients from a pantry.

”I kind of just threw together what I had,” he said.

In the final round, he also indulged in a little sabotage, spending $12,000 to replace a competitor’s assortment of professional kitchen knives with more basic utensils.

Austin said when he’s looking at a selection of ingredients, ideas for dishes occur to him much as ideas for paintings occur to an artist.

”It kind of just pops up in your head,” he said.

He said he’s interested in competing in other cooking shows.

”Yeah, it was a blast,” he said.

Austin graduated from Fort Dodge Senior High School in 2016. He then graduated from the culinary program at Iowa Central Community College.

He is now a chef at Spoon and Stable in Minneapolis.

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