Aladdin’s Chef Hector Ruiz Claims Rescue Recipe Throwdown Championship

As part of Elior North America’s commitment to Doing Good for the planet, our Culinary team is driving a culture of waste reduction by inspiring our chefs to develop creative recipes using food that would have otherwise gone to the landfill.

For the final “Food Fight” round of ENA’s Rescue Recipe Throwdown, our two finalists – Chef Hector Ruiz, Executive Chef for Aladdin at Alvernia University and Chef Dennis Rivera, Regional Culinary Chef at Cura Hospitality – convened on Nov. 10 in Charlotte, N.C., to create a three-course menu using food items that would otherwise have gone to waste. Specific ingredients included: left-over oatmeal, just-past-stamped-date milk, vegetable stalks/peels, stale bread, brussels sprout stalk, and sweet potato (vegetables were provided by the Culinary Vegetable Institute’s Chefs Garden).

The competing chefs presented their creations to an esteemed panel of judges in the Rescue Recipe Throwdown boxing ring, to the cheers of an admiring audience of ENA culinary, sales and marketing team members.

The night’s winner, Chef Hector Ruiz, Executive Chef for Aladdin at Alvernia University, beat out Chef Dennis Rivera, Regional Culinary Chef at Cura Hospitality, by 2 points. His winning menu included vegetable ceviche, jamon-wrapped cod with artichoke purée and chorizo picante oil, and an oatmeal boudin with creme anglaise.

Congratulations, Chef Hector & Chef Dennis, on your outstanding menus and creative Waste Nothing efforts, and to Hector on winning the championship!

We would like to thank our esteemed panel of judges, including internal ENA judges, Paul Basciano, VP of Culinary and Jocelyn Negron-Rios, Executive Administrative Assistant & DEI Council Member, and guest judges, Jamie Simpson, Executive Chef Liaison at The Culinary Vegetable Institute and Glenn Forbes from Rich’s Food service.

Special thanks to our event partners, Hubert Company, our Rescue Recipe Throwdown Sponsor; Cozzini Bros., for providing knives and competitor prizes⁠; and Boldric, for providing competitor prizes⁠.