William Penn teacher spooks Food Network competitors

William Penn High School culinary arts teacher Kip Poole made his Food Network debut wearing a short pink dress, a pair of cat-eye glasses, a brown wig, yellow dishwashing gloves and some scary blue eye shadow and red lipstick.

His goofy "lunch lady" costume for the "Halloween Spook-Tacular" episode of the TV cooking show "Guy's Grocery Games" seemed to give host/celebrity chef Guy Fieri a case of the willies.

"You like it, don't you?" said Poole as Fieri, dressed as a cowboy, warily eyed the Delaware teacher up and down.

"It's the voice and the lipstick that are actually freaking me out the most," said Fieri, who noted Poole must "cook up kooky concoctions in the classroom."

Indeed, things got really freaky in Flavortown, the made-for-TV supermarket set where four contestants play games that include shopping for ingredients that they then must make into delicious dishes.

Poole, a 2005 graduate of Virginia Tech with a degree in hospitality and tourism management, has headed the culinary arts program at William Penn High School for the past five years.

He told Fieri if he won the competition he planned to donate the money - up to $20,000 - to The Crop Foundation. The program Poole founded and heads fosters educational and employment opportunities for students "who are driven to study and promote the art, science and soul of food."

Poole said Tuesday he initially wanted to dress as Julia Child for the Halloween episode he taped last April, but was told by producers he couldn't be a real person. He then thought briefly about being "Mrs. Doubtfire," the housekeeper the late Robin Williams played in the 1993 movie of the same name. After trying to cook in the "Mrs. Doubtfire" costume, Poole changed his mind.

"My boobs got in the way." He switched to the lunch lady costume and borrowed some clothes from William Penn's nutrition department.

Poole didn't have to audition for the show. He was contacted by casting agents through his Linkedin profile and agreed to be a contestant to bring greater awareness to his culinary arts students at William Penn High School. "I thought doing the show would help open doors for my kids."

He said cooking on the show tested his abilities. "There are no tricks. It's 30 minutes of being gung-ho. It was a lot of stress involved."

Poole isn’t the first Delaware chef to appear on “Guy’s Grocery Games.” Robbie Jester, executive chef at the Stone Balloon Ale House in Newark, received widespread recognition after his three recent appearances on the Food Network supermarket/cooking game show.

Then, in July, Jester got even bigger kudos for besting celebrity chef Bobby Flay in a shrimp scampi cookoff on Flay’s popular Food Network show, “Beat Bobby Flay.” Poole's former student Kevin Castro also appeared on a recent episode of "Guy's Grocery Games."

Viewers can also watch chef Andrew Pearce of New Castle go head to head with notoriously ill-tempered Gordon Ramsay on the FOX TV show “Hell’s Kitchen.” It airs at 8 p.m. on Fridays.

The hour-long Halloween-themed episode of the series first aired Oct. 2 and will be shown again on the Food Network this month. It's also available On Demand.

All four contestants, Fieri and the three judges for the program - journalist and food critic Troy Johnson, “Food Network Star” winner Damaris Phillips and TV host and producer Marc Summers - dressed in costumes for the episode.

The first game called for the chefs to make "a tricked-out treat." They had 30 minutes to shop the Flavortown market for ingredients, but the catch was that instead of pushing grocery carts, the chefs could only get items that would fit into small, plastic jack-o'-lanterns.

"Dessert is not my forte," said Poole who nonetheless decided to make black licorice ice cream with a chocolate peanut butter cup bread pudding.

Poole collected the items he needed which included hamburger buns, peanut butter cups, licorice and chocolate milk. Since he couldn't fit a dozen eggs into the plastic jack-o'-lantern, he took some out of the carton. "When my students cheat on tests, I get mad at them," Poole said. "However, you got to do what you gotta do."

Obviously, there are different rules for TV cooking competitions, especially ones calling for contestants to wear costumes.

Poole impressed Fieri with his skills - he used liquid nitrogen to make the black licorice ice cream. "I always show students different techniques," he said, adding that the nitrogen was at least negative 320 degrees.

"Are you comfortable wearing a dress?" Fieri asked as Poole whipped up the ice cream.

"No, not particularly," the teacher said.

"I don't care what you're making, it's awesome to watch," Fieri said.

The judges, while noting that the smoke from the liquid nitrogen "looks spooky," seemed unsure about the flavor.

Black licorice, fan or not? Johnson asked the other judges, before adding his own thought: "It's polarizing."

Poole also didn't seem entirely confident about his choice. "The only risk I got here is black licorice is definitely not a lot of people's favorite. I might have gone a little overboard with it."

And apparently, he did. "When I got that hit of black licorice, I go 'oooooohhhh,'" said Marc Summers after tasting the ice cream.

Fellow judge and “Food Network Star” winner Damaris Phillips didn't soften the blow: "I just don't like black licorice."

However, a chocolate and beet empanada dish made by New York chef contestant Tiffani Ortez was declared much less palatable than Poole's, so he advanced to the second round. The following game called for three chefs to wear blindfolds as they picked up a key item used in a "dinner to die for."

Poole selected brown raisin bread - in a can. "Have you ever seen bread in a can before?" he asked. "Wow. At 'dinner to die for,' I want to die after seeing this can."

He used the odd ingredient in a dish of seared scallops with butternut squash puree and blood sausage, an ingredient that scared some judges.

Poole said being bold is a trait he encourages in his William Penn students. "I tell my students every day to take risks," he said. "I'm here to change minds, win over hearts."

The taste was good enough to send Poole to the final round. He and contestant Myisha Lamar, an executive chef who dressed as a devil, had to make the judges a "mummified dish," or food wrapped within food.

Poole chose to wrap beef tenderloin in caul fat, a thin, fatty membrane, resembling a spider's web, that comes from the abdominal cavity of pigs or sheep. He served it with a smoked red wine and black garlic sauce. While Poole's dish was given kudos for its uniqueness and rich flavor, the judges chose Lamar's calamari stuffed chorizo as the winning dish.

"Watching both of you cook, it's a joy," Fieri said.

"This is like the hardest thing. Challenge after challenge after challenge," Poole said.

On Monday, Lamar, who won $18,000 during a shopping spree, gave a shout-out to Poole in a Facebook post:  "I could not have asked for a tougher and more awesome opponent! You rock dude, and the inspiration that you give those kids is a prize in itself. I wouldn't have minded losing to you."

The judges also gave high praise to the Delaware teacher.

"Kip, it was fantastic watching you cook," said journalist and food critic Troy Johnson. "You were 'Good Will Hunting' and 'Stand and Deliver.' You are every good movie about a great teacher."

Poole said he might possibly return to the show for a redemption competition. "If they ask me back, I'll do it."

Contact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 or ptalorico@delawareonline.com and on Twitter @pattytalorico