11 chefs square off in Kelowna
Reception kicks off Canadian Culinary Championships
Competitors, judges and organizers for this weekend’s Canadian Culinary Championships in Kelowna were introduced at a reception Thursday night at the Laurel Packinghouse.
The 11 competing chefs introduced their sous chefs, received their official blue jackets and met the junior chefs allocated to them from the Okanagan College Culinary Institute.
This could be a life-changing opportunity for these students of the culinary arts, and they showed their flair when they presented members of the media with delicious savory sliders of beef with a blue cheese infused coleslaw.
Other restaurants represented were:
— Raudz, which served truffled cheese pizza with octopus and foie gras.
— Salted Brick, which served a delectable duck mouse on an orange cracker and just a drop of blueberry liquor and cilantro micro-green to finish.
— Codfathers, which set up a shucking station to serve fresh raw oysters that one could slurp down with a drop of apple cider vinegar or a squirt of lemon. I had to keep trying them to conclude which way I like them best.
Sponsoring beverage companies include Tantalus Vineyards, Sperling Vineyards and Time Winery along with Cannery Brewing, Sun-Rype Cider and Tea for a Cause.
Each chef was then presented with a mystery wine box so the teams could dissect each sip in order to conjure up a prize-winning dish for the first of three gruelling culinary trials in this contest for a gold medal. They were truly being tested on their skills, creativity and endurance, with only a budget of $500 and an afternoon to shop, cook and serve 400 plates of food. This inaugural competition, held at the Delta Grand hotel, began at 6 p.m. Friday.
The championships continue today with the Black Box contest at Okanagan College, where chefs will be surprised with seven ingredients to make a dish to wow the judges.
At the Grand Finale tonight at the Delta Grand, each chef will prepare a signature dish to match to a wine they’ve known about for weeks.
Voting and judging from all three events determines the top three medal winners.
The championships will also name a wine of the year from the 11 wines matched to the finale dishes.