FILO Joins MOA in Paying Respect to Veterans

This Veterans Day, FILO Productions teamed up with the Mall of America to put on a fantastic event: the 1st annual Veterans Day Chef's Challenge presented by Star Tribune. The premise was simple: start with eight teams (of two people), and work your way down to one final winner. There were four rounds, with each round lasting one hour. Teams had to use a different MRE (Meal-Ready-to-Eat) as part of their dish each round. Teams were comprised of one service member with cooking experience, and one professional chef from a Mall of America restaurant. The team members had never met before, so it was a unique challenge to work together, while trying to create a dish that would impress the judges and carry their team on to the next round.

In addition to the load-in and load-out of all equipment for the Challenge, FILO’s role during the competition was to support the contestants and make it as easy as possible to complete their dish each round. Whether it be restocking necessary items, removing, cleaning and replacing dishes, or letting the contestants know where they could find certain ingredients and equipment, FILO had it covered. Time moved fast during the competitions, so everyone had to work together. Between rounds, FILO would reset everything, as well as clean all equipment and make sure everything was set for the upcoming round of competition.

It was a long (but worthwhile) 16-hour day, as load-in started at 6am; competitions began around 1pm; and the champions were crowned just after 8pm.

In the end, the team representing Hard Rock Café was awarded first place.

It was truly an honor that FILO had the opportunity to execute such a fun and meaningful event, watching two complete strangers come together in an attempt to show-off their cooking skills, while paying respect to our Veterans. Everyone deemed the event quite a success, with record crowds stopping by the rotunda area to watch the competitions.

FILO looks forward to working with the Mall of America for next year’s Veterans Day cooking challenge, and many more events to come.