Paul Kane students Travis Poseluzny and Adam Hayman assisted chef Paul Campbell, of Sherwood Park’s CafĂ© de Ville, in creating a breakfast menu fit for royalty at a recent culinary competition in Edmonton.
“It was a play on eggs Benedict,” said Hayman, of the dish served at the Gold Medal Plates Culinary Competition.
“It was a piece of herbed brioche on the bottom and then on top of that was a piece of free range back bacon and then an egg that was poached on top of that, and then these apples that were poached in wine syrup on top of that and then there was an apple-pear ginger jam that was served on the side,” he told the Gazette.
The two Grade 12 students learned last minute they would be taking part in the competition, which saw nine teams led by well-known Edmonton-area chefs compete at Edmonton’s Shaw Centre on Oct. 27.
Randy Kozak, CTS/fine arts department head at Paul Kane, also joined the students.
Since 2003, Gold Medal Plates competitions have been held across Canada in an effort to raise funds for Canadian athletes while celebrating excellence in cuisine, wine and the arts.
The Edmonton event featured Colin James and Blue Rodeo lead singer Jim Cuddy, as entertainment.
In each city, premier chefs are paired with Canadian Olympic and Paralymic athletes in a culinary competition that awards a gold, silver and bronze medal to the top three culinary teams. The gold medal chef from each city will compete in the Gold Medal Plates Finale, in Kelowna, B.C. next year.
Hayman and Poseluzny also had Canadian freestyle skier Alexander Bilodeau on their team.
“He was really patient and put up with all of the signatures and pictures we wanted from him,” said Hayman.
Both students said they learned a lot from working alongside Campbell, including a very unique way to poach an egg.
“He had this really cool thing called a sous-vide cooker and it’s basically this thing that circulates water at a really precise and low temperature,” said Hayman.
“Normally to poach an egg until it’s just kind of soft takes a couple of minutes but it took an hour because it cooked them so slowly and so perfectly until the egg was just fully cooked through and creamy,” he said.
“I learned how to vacuum seal stuff, that was pretty cool,” added Poseluzny.
While both students currently work at restaurants in St. Albert — Poseluzny at Earl’s and Hayman at the River House Grill — neither knows for sure if he wants to purse a culinary career.
“It was fun,” said Hayman, of the experience.
“It was really exciting and there were a lot of big restaurants there and important people.”
