Malaspina succeeds at BC Place Culinary Competition

For the last 4 months Malaspina students, Lewis Van Reeuwyk, Alex Palmer, Theresa Yu Chu, Trevor Handford, Jeff Russel, Rob Robinson and Josh Massey worked diligently to practice and prepare for a culinary competition that was held at BC Place stadium on Sunday April 27.

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Chef instructor Gordon Cowen was roped into the competition 4 days before and pulled together a Tapas entry in 3 long days. In the world of food this is absolutely amazing since Tapas is the hardest possible entry to achieve even with more time to prepare.

This competition was a cold competition where the food is displayed as if it might be served in a restaurant. But there are some procedures that the food needs to go through in order for it to be “fresh looking” while on display at room temperature for a whole day. It is cooked, cooled, sliced, air-bubbles filled, and then it is coated in 3 layers of aspic.

In the last week before the competition, all of these students, all of the instructors and a handful of helpers worked to prepare the competition pieces. On the Thursday and Friday proceeding, each one of these people worked form 7am to 11pm to get the food ready. On the Saturday we worked tirelessly from 6am until the trucks were loaded and we were on the 9pm ferry to Vancouver. We didn’t even stop to eat.

Many thanks go out to Ernst Dorfler at the Pan Pacific hotel who managed to find us 3 rooms at a very reduced rate. By 1am we were able to catch 3 hours sleep before heading off to BC Place to set up. Tensions were high as we worked towards our deadline of 8am. No less than 26 sauces were heated on portable butane stoves to finish the plates. A job that had to be done at the last possible moment or they would dry out and look unfit for judging.

All the garnishes made with hair-thin pastry were placed on after the plates were displayed on the table. There were an average of 5 or 6 garnishes made for each plate so that if any broke in transport, the hope was that there would be one that made it to be judged. There was a possible 32 perfect garnishes needed.

It was a bit daunting to the students to see that they were up against cooks who had been cooking for many years. Team Manitoba was there as a practice run for the next Culinary Olympics. Another team from Vancouver who will be competing in Scotland next year was also there. Some of our past Malaspina graduates David Wong, Tobias Grignon and Mike Brough were showing their stuff in this tough competition.

Here is how our students fared. Gold medals went to Lewis’ eight plated desserts, Trevor’s Platters for 2 and 4 and Rob’s Buffet Show Platter. Silver medals went for Alex’s 3 course luncheon, Jeff’s Chocolate carvings and Josh’s 5 appetizer plates, Gordon Cowen received a bronze medal even though one of the judges commended him on his entry saying he was the best tapas entry in the show.

None of this could have been possible without the help of Clay Sanders, Janelle Gibson and Shari Gignac who worked as hard as the competitors.

All in all it was a great team effort and a huge eye opener for all the students involved.