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In a teaching kitchen downtown, two chefs -- one with an American flag stitched on his sleeve -- stood at their marks over cutting boards. Around them stood three upright carts packed with dozens of measured-out spices, 15 pots and pans labeled --"Grenache," "Mousse" -- with blue marking tape. At a nearby table sit mixers, deep fryers, a boiler set to 144 degrees, the precise temperature one properly cooks halibut.
With an offset spatula in his sleeve pocket, the chef with the slick-blond hair hovered his hand over one of 10 armed kitchen timers. It was 9:17 a.m. Across the hall, a lecture began.
"Ready, Earl?" he said to a chef in a Hurley cap and gauged earrings.
"Ready, chef."
"All right." A quick breath. "Here we go."
He smacked the timer.
The two chefs are Eddie Tancredi and his 24-year-old assistant, Earl Warren. Both will compete at the WorldChefs Global Chefs Challenge in Thessaloniki, Greece, in late September. Battling top European culinary knights, Tancredi and Warren will have seven-and-a-half hours to impress 10 judges with a four-course meal -- from foie gras to dessert dishes punctuated with caramelized banana. Every element is judged -- from the spotlessness of his white coat to the swift and timely technique in which his final plates are set.
"If you're late, that can mean a full...