RETAIL AND RESTAURANTS

Top Cooks: El Pollo Loco has presented checks totaling $3,500 to six finalists in the Irvine-based restaurant chain’s annual Chicken Challenge cook-off. Cooks represented restaurants in four states and Mexico.

“This is more than a test of speed and quality,” said Ray Perry, president of El Pollo Loco. “These cooks take pride in their work comparable to the chefs at many fine restaurants.”

One Orange County chicken cook placed in the top six. Rafael Villalobos, who works at an El Pollo Loco restaurant on Harbor Boulevard in Garden Grove, made it through four rounds to win a place in the company’s championship cook-off.

What does it take to be a top chicken chef?

Cooks were judged on whether their birds had the proper “golden brown color and crispy skin.”

Next year, El Pollo Loco will add a new contest: The Great Burrito Race, which will determine the company’s fastest burrito-maker.