St. Albert students will see if their cuisine reigns supreme this Saturday as they face Edmonton’s top high school chefs in a kitchen challenge.
Nine St. Albert students will be cutting carrots and making mousses at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology Feb. 25 as part of the 16th annual High School Culinary Challenge. The event gives student chefs from Edmonton-area high schools a chance to win medals and scholarships by preparing a three-course gourmet meal under a tight time limit.
The 2021 and 2022 challenges were online because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with entries judged on looks alone, said challenge chair and Paul Kane alumni Peter Keith. This year’s challenge will be in-person, with three-member teams from Bellerose, Paul Kane, St. Albert Catholic High, and 13 other Edmonton-area high schools set to compete.
“We’ve put together a challenging menu for them,” Keith said.
It consists of stuffed pork tenderloin with glazed carrots batonnet; chocolate mousse with tuile cookie, chocolate garnish, and raspberry fluid gel; and minestrone soup, all of which has to be prepared in just four hours.
Students will be surrounded by strangers in an unfamiliar kitchen during the challenge, making for a high-stress situation, said Kelly Liusz Moser, coach for the SACHS team of Jaidyn Finlay, McKeely Gallagher, and Deonne Wade. They will need teamwork, time-management, and creativity to succeed.
“The biggest thing they’re learning is that it’s not as simple as reading a recipe,” Liusz Moser said.
“It’s about making the recipe amazing.”
Kitchen challengers
Representing Paul Kane are Grace Bolster, Max DeGraff, and Gabriel Faust, who have been training at school and at home all month.
DeGraff said the team has basically mastered the three dishes at this point and is now working on cleanliness and organizational skills.
“We’ve made a lot of progress since we’ve started,” he said, and the team was really starting to come together.
A veteran of the culinary challenge himself, Keith said winning teams need to demonstrate teamwork, professionalism, and organization. Judges will score each team based on preparation, timing, sanitation, presentation, and taste.
The culinary challenge is typically won and lost based on taste, Keith said. Chefs have to learn to taste everything they touch, and recognize how to bring out the best taste in their ingredients.
“Every step of handling the food needs to be taken in a way that makes it look beautiful,” Keith said, with precise cuts for your vegetables and pork seared to perfection.
DeGraff and Bolster said the team experimented with many different shapes and layouts for their mousse before settling on their current design. Getting the sauce for the tenderloin dark and thick enough without resorting to corn starch took considerable practice.
Bolster said she has made way too much mousse at home in the process.
“I’ve been giving it to friends, anything so I don’t have to eat it anymore.”
Keith said the culinary challenge is meant to inspire a passion for cooking in young chefs and push their skills to the next level.
“For many of them, (this event) is a pathway to their first job in a restaurant.”
The winners will be announced March 6. Visit highschoolculinarychallenge.ca for details.
