St. Albert students will find out today if their cuisine reigns supreme as they hold a cook-off with Edmonton’s most talented high-school chefs.
About 54 Edmonton-area high school students are at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology’s culinary arts centre today to compete in the ninth annual Edmonton High School Culinary Challenge.
Hosted by the Canadian Culinary Federation, the annual event challenges student chefs to complete a three-course gourmet meal in just four hours.
The event is meant to give students a taste of life as a professional chef and to promote the culinary arts, says event chair Simon Smotkowicz.
Students will have to prepare clam chowder with breadstick garnish, stuffed pork tenderloin with dauphinoise (scalloped) potatoes and peppercorn gravy, and spice cake with three sauces for dessert – simple dishes he describes as easy to screw up.
“Sometimes the most simple dishes can be the most difficult ones to prepare.”
Paul Kane chefs Adam Mitchell, Patrick Battigelli, and Sarah Jarbeau have been training for weeks in preparation, cooking each dish again and again until they get them right.
“I’ve made the spice cake about seven times now,” said Grade 12 student Jarbeau – her family’s kind of sick of it now.
Jarbeau says she’s been taking cooking classes for about six years now, and bakes about five times a week. She got the idea to enter this competition after taking part in a murder-mystery dinner event at her school.
Over at St. Albert Catholic, Grade 10 student Christopher Antoniolli and his teammates Marie Mota and Rafael Sy have been frying up pork tenderloins for weeks. He says he got into cooking because he’s good with his hands.
“It’s a good girlfriend winner,” he jokes.
While students are required to stick to the recipes in the contest, they are allowed to mix it up when it comes to presentation, Smotkowicz says.
Jarbeau says she plans to serve her spice cake with homemade ice cream for an extra touch. She’s also experimenting with different ways to make and plate the cake.
Teamwork is an important element of this competition, says coach Randy Kozack. Students need to understand who’s doing what and who’s best for what job. They have to communicate with each other and be ready to help each other out.
“If you’re running around the kitchen with your head cut off, you’re not going to get any bonus marks for that.”
Students will also be feeling the pressure from working in a strange kitchen under a tight time limit, all under the watchful eyes of the judges.
“It’s pretty stressful.”
The time limit’s a factor, but Antoniolli says Team SACHS is usually ahead of schedule when it comes to cooking. He’s more of a solo-flyer, so the teamwork has been his biggest challenge.
“The hardest part in the competition will be just the prep work and not forgetting something that’s so simple.”
Winning teams will get medals and trophies. Grade 12 students also have a shot at scholarships at NAIT, Smotkowicz says. Past scholarship winners include Austin Cunningham and Shaydon Page of Bellerose and TJ Pennington of St. Albert Catholic.
Many of these students will go on to take part in the Skills Canada competition later this year, Kozak said. Some will walk away with job offers from the judges.
“For the chefs who are judging, (this) is an opportunity to see some great new talent.”
The contest runs this Feb. 6 at the NAIT Hokanson Centre for the Culinary Arts. Winners will be announced at the awards dinner March 7.
Visit highschoolculinarychallenge.ca for details.
