Knives were flying at Rikers Island yesterday — but the only one that got hurt was the tomato.
A classic cook-off a la “Top Chef” was held between teams of eager inmates in Queens, showcasing a behind-bars culinary arts program that boosters say is about much more than how to boil an egg.
Sure, making celebrity judges go through metal detectors or tethering sharp kitchen blades down for safety isn’t the norm, but neither is the lofty end game of this program.
“The object is to change these kids’ lives — not just to teach them cooking,” said Mark Sauerhoff, who for 11 years has been instructing classes of incarcerated girls between the ages of 16 and 21.
A separate evening program also teaches kitchen techniques to women over 21.
Most of the 60 girls currently studying at Island Academy, as the Rikers school is called, have been locked up for drug offenses, according to Department of Education officials.
One aspiring chef told The Post she was in for jury tampering and another said she had been busted for a violent assault.
With that many “feisty” cooks in the kitchen, as Sauerhoff called them, it seems logical to assume that temperatures would boil over occasionally.
But students said it never happened because the class taught them invaluable lessons about patience and teamwork.
“It changed my attitude and my perspective on life,” said 19-year-old Aisha, who is set for release Friday after an eight-month stint she said stemmed from a fistfight.
She said her first order of business on Monday is to get a state-issued ID card, and that Tuesday she would enroll in a cooking program at Manhattan’s Co-op Tech.
“When I went to court [for sentencing] they called me a ‘menace to society,’ ” she said. “Now if I went in, they wouldn’t feel the same, because I’m not a bad person.”
When it came to rating the competition — entrees of sautéed tilapia with lemon caper sauce from the adult team versus barbecued salmon with ginger cole slaw from the teens — the judges kept their sharp tongues at home.
Their efforts were ruled a tie.
Harlem restaurant owner and judge Melba Wilson praised the dishes for their creative use of ingredients, high-quality presentation and divine flavors.
“These are things you’d find in any high-end restaurant in the city, so to find it here at Rikers Island is really a joy,” she said.