CANADIAN CULINARY CHAMPIONSHIPS 2009
Canadian Culinary Champion Crowned
Canadian Culinary Challenge 2009 Report
By James Chatto (Gold Medal Plates National Culinary Advisor and Head Judge)
Participating chefs (in alphabetical order):
Chef Nathin Bye from Lazia in Edmonton
Chef Matthew Carmichael from 18 in Ottawa
Chef Mathieu Cloutier from Kitchen Galerie in Montreal
Chef Rob Feenie from Cactus Club Café in Vancouver
Chef Jan Hrabec from Crazyweed Kitchen in Canmore
Chef Ivan Kyutukchiev from Bianca's in St. John's
Chef David Lee from Nota Bene in Toronto
The Wine Pairing Challenge
The Canadian Culinary Championships began on Thursday night with a reception at Gotham steak house in Vancouver. Gold Medal Plates CEO, Stephen Leckie, quickly recapped the regional campaign that had brought the champion chefs from seven Canadian cities to Vancouver. James Chatto's dream team of judges was introduced - the senior judge from each city (Karl Wells from St. John's, Robert Beauchemin from Montreal, Anne DesBrisay from Ottawa, Sasha Chapman from Toronto, Clayton Folkers from Edmonton, John Gilchrist from Calgary and Sid Cross from Vancouver) plus culinary referee, Andrew Morrison. Each chef then stepped forward and introduced the crowd to his or her sous chefs. And we met some of the students from the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, two of whom would be assisting each chef.
An anonymous bottle of the mystery wine, chosen by GMP's National Wine Advisor, David Lawrason, was given to each chef and the rules were reiterated. The chefs were given 24 hours to create a dish that would be a perfect match for the wine. They were told to make enough of the dish to feed 250 people and handed a meagre $400 to spend on ingredients. Furthermore, they had to buy all their ingredients at Granville Island Market, the most expensive grocery-shopping precinct in Vancouver. They had to prepare their dish in the friendly confines of the Dirty Apron cooking school and taxi the food to the venue, a hip nightclub on Granville called the Republic.
This was truly a challenge for our intrepid chefs - and, it turned out, for the judges. The wine itself was a fascinating test - Black Hills 2008 Alibi, an Okanagan blend of 80 percent Sauvignon Blanc with 20 percent Semillon; half the Semillon had seen some oak. It was a tight, acidic, Canadian Sauvignon but there were riches under the surface - herbal nuances, a gloss of ripe fruit hovering over the glass, plenty of citrus on the palate and a faint suggestion of spicy vanilla from the oak. Some chefs chose to challenge the wine's acidity with a dish that had its own strong acidity; others flattered the wine with a more mellow flavour and fattier textures, coaxing the Alibi's shy fruitiness and oaky spice into the open air.
Culinary Referee Andrew Morrison kept close tabs on the chefs and all of them came in just under budget (one chef spent $399.65). As the crowd gathered at the Republic, it was clear that the game was on. Two hours later, after the dust had settled, we had a leader in Mathieu Cloutier of Kitchen Galerie in Montreal but the other chefs were close on his heels and no one was lagging far behind. Many of the dishes were exceptionally skillful and delicious but not quite as good a match for the difficult wine.
Cloutier and his sous chef prepared a very pretty dish, a layered presentation of poached Dungeness crab, the juicy flesh tossed with mayonnaise, chives, yellow carrot and enhanced by a celeriac remoulade, held between two very crisp wontons for textural interest. One storey below, the judges found a julienne of braised veal tongue, its suave texture contrasted with a coarser moment of chorizo, its smoky edge just a whisper in the general splendour. On the plate, a basil and olive oil emulsion offered additional richness, with russet drops of the oil from the chorizo beading on the surface of the sauce. The topmost garnish reached out to the wine - a tiny jumble of confited lemon and orange zest, yellow beet and paper-thin dimes of pickled red carrot. On its own, the dish was spectacular but it also embraced the wine, the richer elements luring out flavours, though the basil emulsion and the pickled carrot came dangerously close to slapping the Sauvignon around.
Matthew Carmichael of Restaurant E18hteen in Ottawa took a different approach. He spent much of his allowance on gorgeous, creamy, meaty kushi oysters which he began to shuck as the competition began. Playing to the citrus face of the wine, he dressed the oysters plainly with a dot of the juice and flesh of yellow grapefruit and a trace of watercress. His second component was two small postage stamps of lightly seared tuna dressed with a loose salsa of raw corn kernels and cucumber brunoise in coconut milk spiked with cane sugar, rock salt and julienned kaffir lime leaf, topped with a couple of fingerling potato crisps. The tuna was a great match for the wine. But was the grapefruit on the oyster too bitter and pungent for the wine's more delicate citric character? The judges were divided over that one.
Rob Feenie of Cactus Club Café in Vancouver detected nascent sweetness and creaminess in the wine and determined to bring those qualities out. He made a tartare of raw scallops, chopping up the shellfish and tossing them with lemon zest and juice, a hint of jalapeño, celery and olive oil. This he smothered with a lukewarm moussey sauce of caramelized onion and some grated pecorino cheese. Dotted around the plate were orange-coloured steelhead caviar, espalette pepper and a sharp lemon dressing. Two tiny perfect toasts provided scrunch. It was a rich dish, well seasoned and the salty elements on the plate proved a nice balance to the wine's acidity.
David Lee of Nota Bene in Toronto presented his dainty dish in a small bowl. He paired a gorgeous sea scallop, lightly torched but still rare at heart, with a generous quantity of poached Dungeness crab. Acidity came from grapefruit, the flesh pulled apart into its tiny, juice-packed cells. A salad of crunchy fennel with coriander and dill added vegetal flavours that worked beautifully with the wine while miniature croutons gave unexpected crunch. The seafood bathed in a cold consommé made of Granville Island sake flavoured by the grapefruit and herbs.
Nathin Bye of Lazia in Edmonton was down at Granville Island Market before anyone else and managed to buy wild red snapper, which he cooked perfectly with a clover honey-infused mustard glaze. The small piece of fish was set atop a slice of fig and anise bread pudding and was topped with an autalfo mango and cippolini onion jam and prosciutto crisp. A dramatic green comma on the plate was a sweetly pungent coulis of basil and garlic. A second sauce used the snapper trimmings, halibut bones, Coronation grapes and half the bottle of mystery white wine. It was a wonderful dish though some judges felt its bouquet of flavours proved too much for such a subtle wine.
Ivan Kyutukchiev from Bianca's in St. John's decided to work with wild salmon, grilling a miniature fillet for each guest and setting it over young leeks softened in olive oil and roasted with garlic. He added a confit of shiitake mushrooms in olive oil, garlic and basil, and some big, juicy chunks of grilled zucchini. On top of the fish lay a garnish of fresh pear, pickled daikon and olive oil, and beneath it was a warm cucumber broth, its green cucumber aroma lifting right out of the bowl. The wine match earned much praise from the judges.
Jan Hrabec of Crazyweed Kitchen in Canmore chose a very different path, brining pork tenderloin, stuffing it with a mixture of goat cheese and orange zest and wrapping it in double-smoked bacon. She built a thick sweet sauce out of dates and orange and posed the meat on a bed of vanilla-scented celeriac purée. Did it work with the wine? Surprisingly well - indeed it was the only dish that seemed to seek out the hint of oak in the wine and encourage it to take a bow.
While the judges hugged their opinions and their marks to themselves, the guests at the event cast their own votes for a "people's choice" winner. By a single vote over Rob Feenie, the popular champion was Mathieu Cloutier.
The Black Box Competition
Many thanks to the staff of the Sheraton Wall Centre, especially manager Daniel Tennant and Executive chef Javiar Alarco (himself a former GMP competitor) for welcoming us to the Grand Ballroom kitchen in the hotel for the Black Box competition. We had three working stations for the chefs, with identical equipment, and a general pantry close by. There was room for the enthusiastic crowd and for the judges table, tucked away beside the dish pit. Each chef was instructed to create two dishes, using all six mystery ingredients from the black box in one or the other dish, making eight plates for the each, for the judges.
As is customary with the CCC, the local judges chose the mystery ingredients. Sid Cross and Andrew Morrison set out to flummox the chefs with their choice of farm-raised arctic char fillets, quail, dragon fruit, fresh fennel, arborio rice and as an exotic, a quantity of a nicely hoppy local IPA beer called Hoppelganger. The chefs were brought down to the kitchen one at a time, each accompanied by a single sous chef. The chef had ten minutes to ponder the ingredients and devise his or her dishes, then 50 minutes to cook. Points would be deducted if an ingredient was not used or if the chef went over time.
Nathin Bye was the first competitor, but he had barely opened his knife kit when he gashed his hand badly. Undeterred, but now wearing a latex glove, he prepared a roulade of arctic char, stuffing the delicate, coral-coloured fillet with beautifully seasoned mousse made from the char. This he served with a salad of crunchy julienned fennel and diced dragon fruit with subtly sweet vinaigrette. Sharing the plate was a seafood risotto made with fish stock and fennel fronds and a hint of lemon.
Chef Bye's second dish was bulgogi-style quail, marinated in soy, ginger, garlic and demerara sugar from the common pantry. The mahogany-coloured skin was soft but delicious, the flesh tender and moist and strongly flavoured with the marinade. Chef Bye used the beer to make a sauce based also on veal stock and Asian flavours and raided the pantry to make boulangère potatoes, stewed in stock with soft onion and fennel.
Matthew Carmichael was the second chef, taking the station beside Chef Bye. He opted to debone the quail, then threading each filleted bird on a stick of fresh thyme. He lacquered the skin with a mixture of soy, ginger, garlic and the beer reduced to a sticky glaze together with the quail bones then roasted the birds until they were perfectly cooked, their skin crisp. Beneath the quail, he made a risotto using wilted spinach and scattered crunchy fried garlic over the mixture.
Every chef, it turned out, chose to use his or her arborio to make a risotto and it was fascinating to compare the different textures and flavours of each. Interestingly, it became clear that many of the judges had their own opinions about what constituted a perfect risotto texture - some preferring slightly softer rice, others looking for the moment of resistence inside each garin of arborio.
Chef Carmichael's second dish involved pan-frying the char, skin side down, and not turning the fillet, so that the skin was delightfully crisp and the flesh gradated from cooked-through opacity closest to the skin to a blushing pink rareness on the surface. He diced the dragon fruit - and for once the black dots of the seeds against the grey flesh of the fruit really did look like dice - and built a refreshing salad of raw shaved fennel with a ginger-scented vinaigrette. His sauce was a subtle lemon gastrique montéed with butter.
Jan Hrabec was our third competitor. She poached her char in a lemon-ginger broth giving the fish a gorgeously moist texture and changing the colour of the flesh to a creamy pink. She made a salad of crunchy fennel slaw and soft-diced dragonfruitdressed with olive oil, lemon juice and lemon zest. Green spinach leaves lay below the fish and a chiffonade of basil was the garnish.
For her second dish, Chef Hrabec enriched her risotto with soft onions sweetly caramelized in beer. She chose to present each judge with a whole quail, first poaching the birds in stock flavoured with the beer, brown sugar, soy and cinnamon, then frying them in a wok. Juicy and tender, the quail's own flavour rang true.
David Lee was our fourth contender. He chose to present the char raw as a very coarsely chopped tartare seasoned with coriander and surrounded by crunchy sliced fennel with the dragon fruit added for visual effect and its own vague sweetness. He used his vinaigrette of olive oil and white wine vinegar as a marinade for the tartare, timing it perfectly so that the rosey surface of the fish had just started to cloud, taking the first step on a long journey that might have ended as a ceviche.
Chef Lee's risotto was the firmest of the morning's, a perfect texture for me, creamy but with each grain of rice having its own distinct identity. Subtle onion and cream enhanced the risotto, which served as a bed for the portioned and roasted quail. Some judges found the meat a tad too rare; others of us loved it for the same reason. Chef Lee's sauce was a buttery beer emulsion that allowed the hoppy bitterness of the ale to make its contribution.
Rob Feenie was up next. While his sous chef rapidly deboned the quail, he made a reduction of beer and chicken stock, using a little sugar to quell the beer's bitterness and butter to enrich it. This ended up as the sauce for the quail which he set atop a delectable risotto made with reduced cream, shallots, thyme and garlic, the rice just a tiny bit softer than Chef Lee's.
Chef Feenie pan-seared his char, cooking it through but leaving it perfectly moist and enhanced with butter, thyme and lemon juice. He used the root and the fronds of the fennel in his salad, piling them on top of a slice of dragon fruit with a tangy sauce involving vinegar, lemon, olive oil, soy, ginger and beef stock.
Ivan Kyutukchiev was our sixth competitor. He portioned his char into identical pieces and pan-seared the fish, timing it perfectly until each fillet was cooked through, the juices nicely seized. He made his risotto with fish fumet that allowed the flavour of the fish to shine and sauced the plate with a dragon fruit coulis and a delicate lemon beurre blanc. His second dish featured whole quail marinated in soy and pale ale and simply roasted, the flesh wonderfully tender and moist. He served the birds with lightly sautéed spinach and accidentally repeated his two sauces on this dish too. Fortunately, they worked equally well with the quail.
The last competitor was Mathieu Cloutier. While some of the chefs had been visions of intense concentration, he and his sous chef were ostentatiously relaxed, chatting and joking with the crowd, Cloutier whistling as he stirred the risotto. He began by enhancing the pantry veal stock using carrot, tomato and other vegetables, thyme, rosemary, garlic, butter and plenty of the beer. In this he braised the quail legs, using the reduction again as a sauce for the perfectly pan-seared breasts. He served the quail with a risotto flavoured with basil and lemon zest.
For his second dish, he pan-seared the char fillets, cooking them through but leaving them beautifully moist, the skin crisp. Beneath the fish he set a salad of fennel and dragon fruit dressed with zippy, lemony, peppery vinaigrette freshened with a brunoise of tomato and a hint of mint. A chiffonade of spinach finished the dish.
The judges retired to a deliberation room, hoping that no chef had opted to prepare quail and risotto for the grand finale that evening.
The Grand Finale
The third element of the Championships is a Grand Finale party that looks very like the first half of a Gold Medal Plates regional event. The chefs were each at their own station in a great ballroom where they served their signature dish to the hundreds of guests. The mood was merry, the excitement intense and the line-ups long, though not for the judges. We sat at a table while gallant food runners brought us each dish and the wine the chef had chosen to accompany it. We had worked out an order in which the dishes would show to best advantage, starting with the lightest.
The first dish came from Mathieu Cloutier, a reprise of his gold medal-winning dish from the Montreal GMP gala. It starred a tiny, delicate rack of rabbit; each wee bone frenched and cleaned, the tender meat wonderfully moist and flavourful from being slowly confited in duck fat. Beside this was a quenelle of super-rich foie gras parfait and some miniature pink cubes of lightly pickled beet. What looked at first glance like a Brussels sprout turned out to be rabbit rillettes and foie gras wrapped with soft spinach leaves. A dramatic stripe of red beet caramel painted the plate while a single tooney-sized crisp of fried bread added scrunch to the dish.
The accompanying wine was the Huff Estates 2007 South Bay Chardonnay from Prince Edward County in Ontario, its rich, oaky personality a great compliment to the dish.
Michael Carmichael's dish was the second to be tasted. The first element was a large mussel shell filled with a piece of rich, creamy Qualicum Bay scallop, some sea urchin and salmon roe all bathing in a foamy coconut milk. It was a fabulously marine mouthful, the many sweet sea flavours splashing about on the tongue. The second element was a small slab of black cod lacquered with honey, lemon and ginger juice. The fillet parted into glossy petals at the touch of a fork. Beside it was a comma of carrot and coconut purée. The Closson Chase South Clos 2007 Chardonnay (a most delectable wine) picked up the scallop and coconut flavours beautifully.
Nathin Bye's dish was next. He had prepared a written description of his intentions at the start of the competition and the complex relationships on the plate were exactly as he had described them. Three elements... The first was a slice of sablefish and fruits de mer roulade using king crab and lobster morsels in a matrix of scallop mousse. The little disc lay in a cream Thai green curry with a dot of mango and rice wine jelly and a quarter-teaspoon of a sweet redcurrant and pepper compote. It was a most invigorating mouthful. The second part was a demitasse of corn and butternut squash mulligatawny, spiked with garam masala spices, the rich broth topped with a creamy cardamom foam. Two shortdough pastry fingers lay across the cup, sandwiched together around a dab of apple and currant jam. Slow-braised Alberta bison shortrib was glazed with "French-Asian fusion" blend of veal/bison demiglace with cream and a different garam masala spice blend. A dab of cauliflower and celeriac purée anchored the meat which wore a toupée of microgreens. Chef Bye's choice of wine was the excellent 2008 JoieFarm Rose from JoieFram Wines in B.C.'s Okanagan valley. David Lee also chose to reprise the dish he used to win the Toronto GMP event, though he added a number of different elements to the plate. Describing the dish to the judges, he brought over some wild ginger stems he had pickled in vinegar two years earlier and which he used to add flavour to a sour apple compote. A dab of this compote appeared on the long strip of very crispy chicken skin, served cold, that grounded his dish. On top of it was a two-inch piece of chicken breast cartilage, slow-cooked in a pressure cooker over 24 hours with ginger and coriander. Its texture was considerably softened but it still had the curious, alien soft-crunchiness of cartilage. Beside this, Chef Lee offered a couple of bites of confited chicken with creamy cauliflower purée and a silky ribbon of pancetta brought from his restaurant in Toronto, garnished with some colourful miniature flower petals and some marjoram leaves. It was a fascinating dish, beautifully paired with the off-dry 2007 June's Vineyard Riesling from 13th Street Winery in Niagara, the wine's honeyed, petrolly bouquet reaching out to the apple and ginger flavours in the dish.
Rob Feenie's dish was next up. He offered a trio of elements. The first was a rectangular crouton of spiced brioche topped with a little honeycomb apple butter and finished with a piped mousse of foie gras scented with maple and vanilla salt. An extraordinarily fragile shard of caramel lay on the top. The second element was a single raviolo filled with butternut squash and mascarpone and strewn with black truffle. The perfectly tender pasta was sauced with a black truffle beurre blanc. The third component was Canadian prime beef short rib slow-braised for 36 hours and sauced with a seriously reduced Peking duck jus. Vancouver Island chanterelles shared the plate and the general richness was leavened by some pickled celery leaves. Chef Feenie's chosen wine was Road 13's "Fifth Element" 2006, a fabulous Bordeaux blend from the Okanagan that thrilled the judges.
Ivan Kyutukchiev's dish starred pork belly brined for 24 hours and smoked over applewood. Fat and lean kept their distinct integrities and the subtle flavour was enhanced by a soft white bean purée. A spoonful of red pepper marmalade was marvellously supple, sleek and tasty, the natural sweetness of the peppers bringing out similar qualities in the pork. Alonside the meat Chef Kyutukchiev placed a red bell-pepper scented marshmallow that slowly melted, releasing its sweet fragrance into the sauce of smoked pork juices. The accompanying wine was Hillebrand Estates Trius red 2006, a traditional Bordeaux blend from Niagara.
Jan Hrabec's dish was the last one the judges tasted. She presented a sphere of Thai-spiced minced chicken on a sweet, richly aromatic sauce of lime, cilantro and coconut with a good kick of chili heat. A hollow hen's egg shell held a rich red coconut curry flan to be eaten with a tiny spoon, the mouthfilling flavours delighting the judges. Sesame crusted sticky rice held the egg shell in place and was quickly eaten together with the last element on the plate, a hot-and-sour chicken salad, the tangy meat sweetened by toasted coconut flakes. Row 13 2008 Riesling from the Okanagan was the chosen wine.
While the live auction began, the judges retired to their deliberation room to collate all the numbers from the three competitions. The final marks for the second, third and fourth-placed competitors were incredibly close - all within a single percentage point. David Lee came second, Matthew Carmichael third and Rob Feenie a heartbreakingly close-run fourth. The winner, by a margin of three percentage points was Mathieu Cloutier from Kitchen Galerie in Montreal. He had aced the Wine Pairing Challenge, had barely maintained a narrowing lead during the black box and won the Grand Finale with a clean decision. The judges returned to the party and the winners were announced. Chef Cloutier's name was greeted with a great roar of approval from the crowd who had adored his rabbit rack as much as the judges did. A rousing rendition of Oh Canada followed as the victorious chefs waved from the podium in a truly Olympian moment.
Canadian Culinary Championships
Be there as Canada's Gold Medal Plates winners compete in three thrilling and grueling challenges as they vie for the title of Canadian Culinary Gold Medal Champion!
Mystery Wine Pairing - Friday, November 27 (6:00 pm) at The Republic Nightclub
Chefs are given a mystery bottle of wine and must create a dish with local ingredients from Vancouver that best matches the wine in a set amount of time and with a set budget. Guests will have the pleasure of sampling these creations on the opening night of the competition.
The Black Box - Saturday, November 28 (9:30 am - 1:00 pm) at Sheraton Wall Centre
Chefs are given one hour to plan and create two dishes with no prior knowledge of the ingredients. VIP guests will have the opportunity to be in the kitchen and witness the action first hand.
The Grand Finale - Saturday, November 28 (6:30 pm) at Sheraton Wall Centre
On the final night of competition, anything goes. Chefs create their best dish for guests to sample. By evening's end, Canada's greatest Chef of 2010 will be crowned.
Purchase your tickets now!
$495 plus GST per person
(before September 30, 2009)
This special price includes all three events PLUS attendance at the Rare Scotch Tasting, Grand Finale VIP Reception and front-of-line privileges throughout the weekend.
For more information or to order tickets:
Tina Oliver: 604-803-8813
or
CLICK HERE for the downloadable PDF order form
A block of rooms have been reserved at the St. Regis Hotel in Vancouver for the Canadian Culinary Championships. The special rate is $129 for standard room and $220 for a suite. To ensure you receive the special room rate indicate you are with the Canadian Culinary Championships (rate available until October 26). After this date, rates and availability of rooms cannot be guaranteed. To reserve: contact the hotel directly at 604-681-1135.
Calgary Chef awarded Canada's Best Chef
Pictures from the Canadian Culinary Championships
THE CANADIAN CULINARY CHAMPIONSHIP
Gold Medal Plates Canadian Culinary Championship was held at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel over the weekend of February 19 to 21. It was the ideal location for the competition - vast yet self-contained, with huge well-equipped kitchens and dramatic public rooms large enough to accommodate the hundreds of guests who came to observe and take part in the events. The hotel's executive chef, Martin Luthi, was a most generous host, providing everything we asked for, from the exclusive use of his busy banquet kitchen for three days to a dozen apprentices.
The competitors were the chefs who had triumphed at the Gold Medal Plates regional events across the country in the autumn of 2008. Here are their names, in alphabetical order, with a little information about their backgrounds supplied by the senior judge from each chef's respective city.
David Cruz is chef of Sage and won the Edmonton GMP event. David was destined to become a world-class chef. With both his mother and father accomplished chefs and restaurateurs, he was groomed from a young age in the culinary arts. His enthusiasm and passion for food and cooking eventually led him to the River Cree Resort and Casino's fine-dining haven, Sage. Prior to this he worked at La Cote Basque, Boulevard, Mary Elaine's, Evergreen and Simon Telluride, also at such restaurants as Masa's, Tru, Charlie Trotter's, Daniel, Motos, San Dominico, Spagos and La Folie. A key for David is respecting the source of the ingredients and keeping the chain from small growers and farmers to the restaurant table alive and well.
Deff Haupt is chef of Le Renoir at Le Sofitel hotel in Montreal. Born in Dortmund, Germany, Deff Haupt, age 42, apprenticed at the Hilton International in Mainz, Germany, and then worked for Emile Jung in Strasbourg, Paul Bocuse in Lyon, and Joel Robuchon in Paris before moving to Chile to work at a ski resort at Vallenevado. During that period, he trained the Brazilian team of chefs for the Bocuse d'Or culinary competition and married a Brazilian wife. Next stop was a ski resort at Val d'Isere, and then Berlin, where he was co-owner of a German-French brasserie near the Brandenburg Gate. Although his Berlin restaurant was a success and his guests at different times included George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Henry Kissinger, he moved to Canada in 2005 with the dream of opening a small restaurant in Mont Tremblant, Quebec. Le Sofitel beckoned in 2006 before that dream became a reality. Now Executive Chef of Hotel Le Sofitel and Restaurant Renoir, Montreal, Haupt describes his cuisine as French-based with German touches. He avoids endangered fish species and serves as much local Quebec food as he can.
Patrick Lin is Executive Chef of Senses restaurant in Toronto, the jewel in the crown of the Metropolitan Hotel. Lin was born in Hong Kong, and has spent much of his career shuttling between Hong Kong and Toronto. Gray Kunz was an early mentor for him at the Regency Hotel, where he embarked on his career in 1980; a decade later, he immigrated to Canada and became the chef at Truffles restaurant at the Four Seasons during executive chef Susan Weaver's tenure. Since then, he has returned to Hong Kong several times. In 2007, he came back to Toronto to take over the helm at Senses restaurant. He is best known for combining Asian ingredients with classic European techniques.
Hayato Okamitsu is chef of Catch Restaurant & Oyster Bar in Calgary. "The dreams of a young Japanese Chef can become a reality," write Adam Geml and Pat Insole. "After six years of unstinting dedication to Catch Restaurant & Oyster Bar, Hayato Okamitsu was named Executive Chef in 2008. Hayato has created Japanese-influenced dishes such as Wonton Crusted Tempura Prawns with Togaroshi Dip which quickly became a Catch signature dish and is still the most popular appetizer after seven years on the menu. Hayato's creativity shone through at Calgary's Gold Medal Plates Competition when his dish was the most ambitious of the night in terms of complexity, but truly set a record when it became the first vegetarian dish to win the Gold Medal honour."
Frank Pabst is chef of Blue Water Café in Vancouver. A master of local seafood, Frank Pabst came to Vancouver in 1993 after working in several Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe (among them Aachen's Le Becasse, the Hotel Negresco in Cannes, and Antibes' Restaurant de Bacon). He led the kitchen at Lumiere as chef de cuisine before opening Pastis in 2000, which won Best New Restaurant at that year's Vancouver magazine restaurant awards. As the executive chef at Blue Water Café since 2003, Pabst is recognised in the industry as a leader in celebrating local producers and sustainable-savvy fishermen.
Charles Part is owner-chef of Les Fougères and won GMP's Ottawa-Gatineau event. His first restaurant was in Toronto, a little gem in the Beaches called Loons. Together with his wife, Jennifer Warren-Part, Charles has been the chef-owner of Les Fougères in the village of Chelsea, Quebec (12 minutes from Parliament Hill) since 1993. Charles is British by birth, received his culinary training at the Westminster Hotel School and had his first restaurant experiences in London, UK. Charles and Jennifer's 2008 book, A Year at Les Fougères, won gold in the Canadian Food Culture category at the 2008 Cuisine Canada's Book Awards.
The chefs were all introduced at a small reception at the hotel on Thursday night. They introduced their sous chefs to the gathering (each chef was allowed to bring two from his restaurant, though Chef Cruz opted to bring only one friend). Then our host, Chef Luthi, introduced the apprentices who would assist each chef. It was also a chance for me to introduce my panel of judges...
From Montreal, Julian Armstrong, food writer for The Gazette and a founding member of both Cuisine Canada and the Association of Food Journalists. She is the author of A Taste of Quebec.
From Ottawa, Anne Desbrisay, restaurant critic of the Ottawa Citizen for the last 17 years. She writes about food, restaurants and travel for many publications and for CBC radio and is the author of Capital Dining, a Guide to restaurants in the National Capital Region.
From Toronto, Sasha Chapman, former food editor of Toronto Life who now writes regular columns about food in the Globe & Mail, Toronto Life and Report on Business Magazine as well as major U.S. and Canadian magazines such as Saveur and Chatelaine.
From Vancouver, Sid Cross is the wine and food guru for Western Living magazine and is a world-renowned wine and food judge. He has been honoured by the French and Italian governments and is the only Canadian to be awarded The Gourmet of the Year by The Society of Bacchus in the USA.
From Edmonton, Clayton Folkers is a world-class pastry chef, international judge and educator, and was the first pastry chef to captain the Canadian National Culinary Team. He has captained Culinary Team Alberta and Culinary Team Canada to gold medals, won the IKA Culinary Olympics and was twice named Canadian Chef of the Year.
From Calgary, John Gilchrist is a familiar voice on CBC Radio. He's also the author of eight national best-sellers on dining in southern Alberta. He has a column in the Calgary Herald, writes for dozens of magazines and teaches Food and Culture programs for the University of Calgary.
Last but not least, from Vancouver, Andrew Morrison is the restaurant critic for the Westender newspaper, the editor of Scout Magazine, and a regular contributor to Western Living and Vancouver magazines. He had a special role this weekend as our culinary referee, making sure all rules were followed during and between the three competitions.
The Thursday evening reception was the start of the first of these three events, the Wine Pairing Challenge. Each chef was given a bottle of the same wine with no label and an unmarked stopper. All they knew about it was that it was Canadian and that GMP's National Wine Advisor, David Lawrason, had selected it especially for the competition. The chefs were instructed to taste the wine and devise a dish that would perfectly match it. They had 24 hours to do this but there were certain added provisos that made the task a little more challenging. We asked them to make enough of their dish to feed 235 people (the number of guests at our Friday evening party) and we told them they were only allowed to spend a very small amount of money on ingredients - $350. They could go shopping wherever they wanted - in Banff, Canmore, Calgary - anywhere except in the hotel where we were staying. They could be as ingenious and creative as they wished with their shopping but they had to present us with receipts for everything they purchased. To mitigate things a little, we provided a communal pantry of basic seasonings, herbs, spices, oils and stocks, etcetera.
The Wine Pairing Challenge
On Friday evening, the event took place in the baronial splendour of one of the hotel's halls. The chefs' stations were arranged around the room. The guests were able to taste the mystery wine (later revealed as Inniskillin Okanagan Malbec 2005) and each of the dishes.
Deff Haupt took everyone by surprise by deciding to match this dense, hearty red wine with fish. He cooked a fillet of red snapper perfectly, leaving it juicy and sweet under a savoury crust of cinnamon, an element he had detected in the wine. For a sauce he made a red wine butter and a white wine butter which swirled together on the plate, both of them with a lovely silky weight and a well-judged citrus edge. The two colours of purple and white were echoed throughout the dish. Tangy, acidulated, finely chopped beets formed another bridge into the wine. The dish was finished with a little wilted spinach on top. The sauces, beets and cinnamon worked admirably with the wine, but the flavour of the actual fish struggled to make itself apparent.
David Cruz braised pork shoulder, giving it a delicious sweet flavour and a variety of textures. Beneath it he set a semi-purée of Tuscan cannelini beans topped with juicy chopped chard and sautéed crimini mushrooms that were particularly good with the wine. A streak of yellow carrot purée lacked flavour and focus, as did a streak of green basil oil. Crunchy shallots were the final garnish. The general lack of edge and acidity in the flavours of the food actually brought out those qualities in the wine a little more, accentuating its fruitiness.
Hayato Okamitsu also chose to work with pork, roasting a pork shoulder to tender succulence then slicing it for the plate. Working within his budget, he made peppery hand-pressed gnocchi (he found considerable pepperiness in the wine, as did several of the chefs). His sauce was a rich brown butter spiked with finely chopped beets. Some judges felt he served a little too much sauce for the dish. A few leaves of arugula proved a refreshing little garnish. On top lay a bacon and thyme "maxime" like a crisp transparent tissue of herbed bacon that was utterly delicious. The dish worked well with the wine, its homespun flavours in a good balance with the wine's intensity.
Patrick Lin prepared a relatively complex plate. He roasted a leg of lamb seasoned with garlic and cumin - it was delectably tender and sapid but perhaps a little too pungently "lamby" for the wine. Beside it he made a meat ball of miced pork stuffed with crab meat (subtle but fabulous and a better match than the lamb). The meatball was set on a disc of king oyster mushroom scored with a knife for textural interest. On top a single rasher of bacon had been crisped with honey. On the bottom two mustard greens provided green crunch and refreshment - lovely for the dish, irrelevent to the wine. The natural jus of the lamb was refreshed with diced granny smith apple.
Charles Part also chose lamb, carefully sourced from a farm outside Calgary. He cooked the shoulder sous vide, its flavour ending up a tad more subtle than Patrick Lin's roast. The jus was enriched by whole cloves of roast garlic, blackcurrants and a brunoise of root vegetables. A minted pea risotto had a perfect texture and seemed like a breath of summer. On top of the lamb, a bright green teaspoonful of salsa verde made with fresh herbs and anchovy was a deliciously intense condiment. Presentation was pretty and the dish's internal balances were very well achieved. Some judges felt it was too big a dish for the wine. If it had been a Cabernet Sauvignon, it would have been more successful but this soft Malbec turned out to be less powerful and structured than it appeared to be at first sniff.
Frank Pabst created a cabbage roll filled with a subtly flavoured mince of braised elk, pork shoulder and double smoked bacon. He bought two more bottles of the wine from Gold Medal Plates (at a price of $30 per bottle) and added them to the jus to create the dish's sauce. A celeriac and apple purée had a lovely fresh, rooty flavour. A mix of black rice and carrot, interestingly, produced a flavour close to sweet corn. On top was a mound of crunchy purple beet "straw".
The guests voted that night for a "people's choice" favourite, an award that went to Charles Part, by a considerable margin. The judges kept their marks private but Hayato Okamitsu was in first place with three other chefs clustered a few percentage points behind him - Charles Part, Deff Haupt and Patrick Lin.
The Black Box Saturday morning brought the intensity and drama of the Black Box competition, where each chef is given an identical group of secret ingredients. They must devise two dishes that will use these ingredients (all six must be used, though not necessarily in the same dish) and they have one hour to finish the dishes and plate one of each for each of the judges. Points would be deducted for failure to use all ingredients, for going over the allotted time by even a few seconds and for failing to provide the requisite number of dishes. Each chef was allowed to use only one assistant.
There was room in the hotel's banquet kitchen for three chefs to work at one time and for the crowd of fifty guests and camera crews, but we staggered the chefs working time to allow a 15-minute gap between each start time and a longer break in the middle so there were never more than three chefs competing at any one time. While the judges sat apart in the kitchen's servery, the chefs set to work.
The six mystery ingredients had been chosen by Gold Medal Plates regional senior judge, John Gilchrist. They had to be local Alberta product and we asked for a meat, a fish, a grain, a fruit, a vegetable and a dairy product. His selection was challenging indeed - a kilo of organically raised Alberta pork tenderloin with a good fat cap on it; three farmed rainbow trout, gutted but with heads on; a bag of rolled oats; a bottle of saskatoonberry syrup (fresh local fruit being impossible to find in Alberta in February); a bag of fabulously swet, crunchy organic carrots; a substantial wedge of a local gouda cheese, recently voted the fourth best gouda in the world at the cheese championship in Wisconsin.
First up was chef David Cruz. He filleted his trout, rolled the fillets in ground oats and served it with the carrots which he had prepared two ways, candied and as a deliciously spiced savoury purée with some real chili heat. For his second dish, he roasted the pork medium rare, sliced it and sauced it with a beurre spiked by the saskatoonberry syrup. He turned the gouda into a golden crisp that he used to garnish the pork.
Chef Hayato Okamitsu was next. He mixed the oatmeal with sesame and used it as a crust for the trout fillets. He turned the carrots into a purée scented with ginger from the communal pantry, added some wilted spinach and a rich brown butter sauce spiked with soy, clove and the saskatoonberry syrup. Visually, it was an exceptionally pretty dish. His herb-rubbed roast pork loin was sliced and set over a ragout of finely diced potato flavoured with shallots and the gouda and sharpened with a dash of a mustard and sherry vinaigrette.
Chef Charles Part was the third competitor. He rolled his trout fillets in the oats and pan-fried them, timing them to a perfect point of juiciness. He also borrowed pantry items, serving the fish with spinach and a confit of lemons that brightened the plate and the palate. For his second dish, he cut the pork into escalopes and sandwiched gouda in between then rolled the meat in panko crumbs and pan-fried it until the cheese melted. He used the saskatoonberry syrup carrots and other pantry vegetables to create a pickle that he served with the pork and crowned it with a perfectly timed poached egg. Its runny yolk formed the sauce for the pork dish.
Chef Patrick Lin aced the texture of the trout which he served as a sort of melt, crowned with molten gouda. Butter-sautéed spinach shared the plate and he sauced it with a lightweight tomato-herb bouillon. For his pork dish he pounded the meat into schnitzels, coated them with oats and deep-fried them, fisnishing the plate with a sauce meuniere and carrots spiked with the saskatoonberry syrup.
Chef Deff Haupt stuffed the pork tenderloin with gouda and fines herbes and roasted it off, slicing it and crowning the plate with a gouda crisp. He braised the carrots and scented them with curry spices, saucing the dish with a beef stock and rosemary jus spiked with saskatoonberry syrup. The trout fillets were simply pan-seared, which brought out their flavour beautifully, then set atop a sturdy galette of grated potato and oat flakes. He opted to make a version of the classic sauce Albertine using the pantry stocks hit with butter and herbs.
Chef Frank Pabst finished the competition. He coolly brined his pork loin for 20 minutes to tenderize the meat and served it with a delicious saskatoonberry gastrique sharpened with sherry vinegar, thyme and shallots. He used the gouda as a subtle component of a classic Pommes Anna, the tissue-thin potatoes fanned and pan-fried. Braised baby carrots picked up hints of ginger and shallot from their braising liquid. His trout fillets arrived crusted with mustard-spiked oatmeal then panfried. He set the fish over a delectable onion soubise, a little baby spinach and topped it with a clever crisp of the fried trout skin.
The judges were impressed by all the dishes, though they wondered why no one had thought to use the oats as a biscuit or be a tad more creative with the pork. Three chefs scored particularly highly in the black box competition: Hayato Okamitsu, Frank Pabst and Deff Haupt. But going into the third and final element of the competition it was still anyone's race.
The Grand Finale
For this event, each chef was allowed to create any dish he wished, the limits set only by his own imagination and the fact that he only had Saturday afternoon to pull the masterpiece together. He could bring in whatever ingredients he wished but he had to prepare enough to serve 300 guests and he could only be assisted by his two sous chefs (one in David Cruz's case) and his two hotel apprentices. Wine pairing was again a component. Each chef was instructed to work with the same winery he had chosen to pair with during the regional events, though not restricted to the same wine.
Chef Deff Haupt presented three ethereal cornmeal gnocchi, light as any mousseline, smothered in a nutmeg-spiked parmesan sabayon and strewn with crispy little nuggets of pan-fried sweetbreads. Black winter truffle was grated over the dish and it was finished with a dramatic spiral of sweet tuile and some whisps of wheatgrass. His wine was from Prince Edward County, Ontario - Black Prince Winery's First Crush unoaked Chardonnay 2005.
Chef Frank Pabst chose to showcase the great seafood of the west coast. His plate consisted of three elements - the first a gorgeous raw kushi oyster, out of its shell and set on a mound of chopped cucumber jelly, topped with horseradish foam. A slice of raw Qualicum Bay scallop was turned into a delicate ceviche, its natural sweetness perfectly balanced against the tart citrus of the dressing. Beneath it was a spoonful of salad made from green seaweed and fine shavings of Humboldt squid. The third element was a cold parfait of sea urchin, its marine pungency mitigated by a cap of ponzu jelly. Dotted here and there were tiny amounts of green onion, preserved watermelon rind, black dots of a sauce made from sake, soy and nori, and a dab of tangy yuzu-sake "pudding". Chef Pabst paired his dish with Sumac Ridge Stella's Jay Brut 2004 sparkling wine from B.C.
Chef Hayato Okamitsu also presented a triptych. The first component looked like a cube-shaped chocolate smothered in a glossy black sauce. It turned out to be Alberta beef short rib braised sukiyake-style with a profound soy-based sauce. A finger of Quebec foie gras torchon gained extra flavour from a light soy cure; Chef served it on a tiny morsel of toast. A demitasse held a spectacularly rich and intense lobster bisque. Across the rim of the cup a lattice sesame crisp supported a shiso-scented B.C. spot prawn, out-of-season but still charming to most of the judges. A dab of ginger-yuzu "pudding" was as intense as any of the powerful flavours on the plate. Sumac Ridge Private Reserve Merlot 2005 was a fine match for the beef.
Chef David Cruz began with flatiron steak cut from Alberta kobe cattle. He grilled it rare and sliced it delicately - it proved surprisngly tender. On top he laid a julienne of carrot, apple, radish and micro greens. Two sauces competed for attention - a tangy lime emulsion and a rich dark shiitake sweet-and-sour sauce, made even more irresistible with brown sugar, garlic and Szechuan pepper. He astonished the judges by pairing it with See Ya Later Ranch Chardonnay 2007, a coup that proved surprisingly successful.
Chef Charles Part presented a dish he described as the dish he would choose for his last meal - "it means that much to me..." Its principal was a generous helping of confited Quebec moulard duck, rich, tender and moist with a skin that was crisp where it needed to be and fatty elsewhere. The flavour was wonderful, the sweetness enhanced by threads of orange zest. It sat on a thick disc of cooked pear with a spoonful of soft, tangy chevre cheese at its hollowed heart. Beneath that was an Agria potato rösti. The dish was finished with some forthright spinach and a delicious sauce of New Brunswick partridgeberries zapped with vinegar to become a classy ketchup. This dish was honest-to-goodness bistro taken to the bistro extreme. Some judges loved its democratic lack of fuss; others found it too plain. Chef Part paired it with a Prince Edward County wine, Huff Estates Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2005, made with Niagara grapes.
Chef Patrick Lin also offered duck - an extraordinary and complex five-part treatment of Ontario King Cole duck, to be precise. On a silver spoon was a sliver of sweet, cured, oolong-tea-smoked duck breast. A round slice of duck galantine using the duck's neck was garnished with a dot of kumquat compote and a slender lotus root crisp. Cured duck breast appeared with a Thai-style fruit salad all arranged on a round disc of iceberg lettuce - a refreshing, texturally complex mouthful that played with the fresh sweetness and tartness of the fruits and the salty fat of the cured duck. A foie gras ball had been rolled in a crust of crushed candied walnuts and then set on a cone of crisp wonton wrapper like some angelic ice cream cornet. The final iteration of the canard was a hollowed eggshell filled with a loose, lightweight foie gras custard brûlée topped with a sugestion of dried tangerine peel. The last component was amazingly delicious with the chosen Inniskillin Niagara Cabernet Franc Icewine 2006 - the weekend's most obvious wine-food epiphany. Chef Lin also presented a second wine - Jackson Triggs Okanagan Grande Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 that worked well with the smoked breast.
Opinion was divided about Chef Lin's dish. Some of us felt it was a three-Michelin-star effort; others found it too much, with one or two elements too many. When the scores were fed into the number cruncher, however, Chef Lin's dish won the day at the Grande Finale. Would that be enough to win the entire Championship? The judges retired to a quiet room and the math was done. The honour fell to me to return to the crowded ball room and make the announcement. First, I invited the retiring champion, Chef Melissa Craig, up on stage. Melissa had travelled across the country with us during the 2008 Gold Medal Plates campaign, cooking for the VIP reception in each city, and had proved a delightful companion, a great sport (even when half her crabs were left out of the refrigerator in Calgary) and a true champion. I speak for the entire GMP organisation when I say that she will always be part of our team.
Joining us on stage was GMP CEO, Stephen Leckie and representatives of our two title sponsors, Denise Carpenter of Epcor and Mark Toner of GE. Then came the moment of truth. When all the numbers were crunched, the bronze medal went to Deff Haupt of Le Renoir in the Sofitel hotel, Montreal. The silver medal went to Frank Pabst of Blue Water Café in Vancouver. And the gold medal was awarded to Hayato Okamitsu of Catch in Calgary. He becomes the new Canadian Culinary Champion.
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WEST IS BEST AT CANADIAN CULINARY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Pictures from the Canadian Culinary Championships
February 11, 2008
Toronto, ON: Following three intensely competitive evenings, it was Chef Melissa Craig of Bearfoot Bistro in Whistler, who emerged as Canada's Best Chef as part of the Canadian Culinary Championships held in Toronto February 7, 8 and 9. Toronto's Anthony Walsh of Canoe was awarded the silver medal and Roland Ménard of Manior Hovey, representing the Montréal region, took home bronze.
The competition began Thursday evening with a Black Box Challenge held in the instructional kitchens of George Brown College. The seven competing chefs had one hour to prepare two dishes using six mystery ingredients, which included two Georgian Bay whitefish, Top Meadow Farms flank steak, a celery root, a bag of Ontario peanuts, a honeycomb oozing honey and a handful of green plantains.
Friday evening was the Mystery Wine Pairing, whereby chefs prepared a dish they felt perfectly suited the mystery bottle of wine they had received the evening before, a delicious Closson Chase Chardonnay by winemaker Deborah Paskus. They were also given $400 to shop for ingredients to feed the 150+ guests in attendance. Invited guests were able to taste the chefs' creations and cast their own ballot. Emerging as the people's choice winners for this single event were: Gold - Anthony Walsh, Toronto, Silver - Michael Moffatt, Ottawa, Bronze - Judy Wu, Edmonton.
There were no obvious frontrunners heading into the Grande Finale event Saturday, held at Toronto's Arcadian Court. But it was Melissa Craig's King crab dish that captured gold. She presented a small cone of bamboo leaf with a tender flesh from the claw inside, garnished with tobiko and some soy-sauce pop rocks. There was a delicately flavoured crab croquette, spherical and golden-crusted, sitting on a little pool of mango-basil purée. Lastly, a demitasse of king crab soup - white, full-bodied with coconut milk and with a gentle lemongrass and chili hit. Melissa paired the dish with a bracingly acidic Tantalus Vineyards Riesling 2006 which the judges deemed to be the best wine match of the evening.
An underdog in the truest sense, Melissa Craig was a last minute contender, asked to step in as the silver medallist representing Vancouver when the city's gold medal chef, Pino Posteraro could not make the national finals.
The judges - all leading Canadian food and wine critics, headed by James Chatto - were impressed with each of the competing chefs' dishes that best exemplified creativity, brilliance and individuality during each of the competitions. Chatto, author and restaurant critic for Toronto Life Magazine, said that "there was much more parity between the contestants this year" at the final competition. "There was no clear winner from the beginning. All seven chefs were within six percentage points of each other, which meant that anybody could win it which was quite exciting."
Stephen Leckie, CEO and Founder of Gold Medal Plates, said "Gold Medal Plates was delighted to stage this year's Canadian Culinary Championships in Toronto. The three evening competition was highly entertaining for guests, competitive and truly showed the substantial culinary talent and quality of wine that Canada has to offer."
The weekend was graced with numerous celebrities such as Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo, Sonja Smits, Justin Trudeau and triple Olympic medalists - Marnie McBean and Curt Harnett.
Gold Medal Plates would like to thank each of the chefs for participating in the Canadian Culinary Championships which celebrates Canadian excellence in cuisine, wine and athletics.
The seven competing chefs:
Melissa Craig of Bearfoot Bistro in Whistler (Vancouver)
Paul Rogalski of Rouge (Calgary)
Judy Wu of Wild Tangerine (Edmonton)
Anthony Walsh of Canoe (Toronto)
Michael Moffatt of Beckta Dining and Wine (Ottawa-Gatineau)
Roland Ménard of Manoir Hovey (Montréal)
Martin Ruiz Salvador of Fleur de Sel (Halifax)
About Gold Medal Plates Since its inception, Gold Medal Plates has donated more than $2.4 million to support Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes and has elevated the profile of Canadian cuisine and wine.
Media enquiries:
Karen Petcoff
416-275-6844
kvpet@rogers.com
Karen Blair
416-778-6533
kblair@goldmedalplates.com
Canadian Culinary Champion Crowned
Canadian Culinary Challenge 2009 Report
By James Chatto (Gold Medal Plates National Culinary Advisor and Head Judge)
Participating chefs (in alphabetical order):
Chef Nathin Bye from Lazia in Edmonton
Chef Matthew Carmichael from 18 in Ottawa
Chef Mathieu Cloutier from Kitchen Galerie in Montreal
Chef Rob Feenie from Cactus Club Café in Vancouver
Chef Jan Hrabec from Crazyweed Kitchen in Canmore
Chef Ivan Kyutukchiev from Bianca's in St. John's
Chef David Lee from Nota Bene in Toronto
The Wine Pairing Challenge
The Canadian Culinary Championships began on Thursday night with a reception at Gotham steak house in Vancouver. Gold Medal Plates CEO, Stephen Leckie, quickly recapped the regional campaign that had brought the champion chefs from seven Canadian cities to Vancouver. James Chatto's dream team of judges was introduced - the senior judge from each city (Karl Wells from St. John's, Robert Beauchemin from Montreal, Anne DesBrisay from Ottawa, Sasha Chapman from Toronto, Clayton Folkers from Edmonton, John Gilchrist from Calgary and Sid Cross from Vancouver) plus culinary referee, Andrew Morrison. Each chef then stepped forward and introduced the crowd to his or her sous chefs. And we met some of the students from the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, two of whom would be assisting each chef.
An anonymous bottle of the mystery wine, chosen by GMP's National Wine Advisor, David Lawrason, was given to each chef and the rules were reiterated. The chefs were given 24 hours to create a dish that would be a perfect match for the wine. They were told to make enough of the dish to feed 250 people and handed a meagre $400 to spend on ingredients. Furthermore, they had to buy all their ingredients at Granville Island Market, the most expensive grocery-shopping precinct in Vancouver. They had to prepare their dish in the friendly confines of the Dirty Apron cooking school and taxi the food to the venue, a hip nightclub on Granville called the Republic.
This was truly a challenge for our intrepid chefs - and, it turned out, for the judges. The wine itself was a fascinating test - Black Hills 2008 Alibi, an Okanagan blend of 80 percent Sauvignon Blanc with 20 percent Semillon; half the Semillon had seen some oak. It was a tight, acidic, Canadian Sauvignon but there were riches under the surface - herbal nuances, a gloss of ripe fruit hovering over the glass, plenty of citrus on the palate and a faint suggestion of spicy vanilla from the oak. Some chefs chose to challenge the wine's acidity with a dish that had its own strong acidity; others flattered the wine with a more mellow flavour and fattier textures, coaxing the Alibi's shy fruitiness and oaky spice into the open air. Culinary Referee Andrew Morrison kept close tabs on the chefs and all of them came in just under budget (one chef spent $399.65). As the crowd gathered at the Republic, it was clear that the game was on. Two hours later, after the dust had settled, we had a leader in Mathieu Cloutier of Kitchen Galerie in Montreal but the other chefs were close on his heels and no one was lagging far behind. Many of the dishes were exceptionally skillful and delicious but not quite as good a match for the difficult wine.
Cloutier and his sous chef prepared a very pretty dish, a layered presentation of poached Dungeness crab, the juicy flesh tossed with mayonnaise, chives, yellow carrot and enhanced by a celeriac remoulade, held between two very crisp wontons for textural interest. One storey below, the judges found a julienne of braised veal tongue, its suave texture contrasted with a coarser moment of chorizo, its smoky edge just a whisper in the general splendour. On the plate, a basil and olive oil emulsion offered additional richness, with russet drops of the oil from the chorizo beading on the surface of the sauce. The topmost garnish reached out to the wine - a tiny jumble of confited lemon and orange zest, yellow beet and paper-thin dimes of pickled red carrot. On its own, the dish was spectacular but it also embraced the wine, the richer elements luring out flavours, though the basil emulsion and the pickled carrot came dangerously close to slapping the Sauvignon around.
Matthew Carmichael of Restaurant E18hteen in Ottawa took a different approach. He spent much of his allowance on gorgeous, creamy, meaty kushi oysters which he began to shuck as the competition began. Playing to the citrus face of the wine, he dressed the oysters plainly with a dot of the juice and flesh of yellow grapefruit and a trace of watercress. His second component was two small postage stamps of lightly seared tuna dressed with a loose salsa of raw corn kernels and cucumber brunoise in coconut milk spiked with cane sugar, rock salt and julienned kaffir lime leaf, topped with a couple of fingerling potato crisps. The tuna was a great match for the wine. But was the grapefruit on the oyster too bitter and pungent for the wine's more delicate citric character? The judges were divided over that one. Rob Feenie of Cactus Club Café in Vancouver detected nascent sweetness and creaminess in the wine and determined to bring those qualities out. He made a tartare of raw scallops, chopping up the shellfish and tossing them with lemon zest and juice, a hint of jalapeño, celery and olive oil. This he smothered with a lukewarm moussey sauce of caramelized onion and some grated pecorino cheese. Dotted around the plate were orange-coloured steelhead caviar, espalette pepper and a sharp lemon dressing. Two tiny perfect toasts provided scrunch. It was a rich dish, well seasoned and the salty elements on the plate proved a nice balance to the wine's acidity.
David Lee of Nota Bene in Toronto presented his dainty dish in a small bowl. He paired a gorgeous sea scallop, lightly torched but still rare at heart, with a generous quantity of poached Dungeness crab. Acidity came from grapefruit, the flesh pulled apart into its tiny, juice-packed cells. A salad of crunchy fennel with coriander and dill added vegetal flavours that worked beautifully with the wine while miniature croutons gave unexpected crunch. The seafood bathed in a cold consommé made of Granville Island sake flavoured by the grapefruit and herbs.
Nathin Bye of Lazia in Edmonton was down at Granville Island Market before anyone else and managed to buy wild red snapper, which he cooked perfectly with a clover honey-infused mustard glaze. The small piece of fish was set atop a slice of fig and anise bread pudding and was topped with an autalfo mango and cippolini onion jam and prosciutto crisp. A dramatic green comma on the plate was a sweetly pungent coulis of basil and garlic. A second sauce used the snapper trimmings, halibut bones, Coronation grapes and half the bottle of mystery white wine. It was a wonderful dish though some judges felt its bouquet of flavours proved too much for such a subtle wine.
Ivan Kyutukchiev from Bianca's in St. John's decided to work with wild salmon, grilling a miniature fillet for each guest and setting it over young leeks softened in olive oil and roasted with garlic. He added a confit of shiitake mushrooms in olive oil, garlic and basil, and some big, juicy chunks of grilled zucchini. On top of the fish lay a garnish of fresh pear, pickled daikon and olive oil, and beneath it was a warm cucumber broth, its green cucumber aroma lifting right out of the bowl. The wine match earned much praise from the judges.
Jan Hrabec of Crazyweed Kitchen in Canmore chose a very different path, brining pork tenderloin, stuffing it with a mixture of goat cheese and orange zest and wrapping it in double-smoked bacon. She built a thick sweet sauce out of dates and orange and posed the meat on a bed of vanilla-scented celeriac purée. Did it work with the wine? Surprisingly well - indeed it was the only dish that seemed to seek out the hint of oak in the wine and encourage it to take a bow.
While the judges hugged their opinions and their marks to themselves, the guests at the event cast their own votes for a "people's choice" winner. By a single vote over Rob Feenie, the popular champion was Mathieu Cloutier.
The Black Box Competition
Many thanks to the staff of the Sheraton Wall Centre, especially manager Daniel Tennant and Executive chef Javiar Alarco (himself a former GMP competitor) for welcoming us to the Grand Ballroom kitchen in the hotel for the Black Box competition. We had three working stations for the chefs, with identical equipment, and a general pantry close by. There was room for the enthusiastic crowd and for the judges table, tucked away beside the dish pit. Each chef was instructed to create two dishes, using all six mystery ingredients from the black box in one or the other dish, making eight plates for the each, for the judges.
As is customary with the CCC, the local judges chose the mystery ingredients. Sid Cross and Andrew Morrison set out to flummox the chefs with their choice of farm-raised arctic char fillets, quail, dragon fruit, fresh fennel, arborio rice and as an exotic, a quantity of a nicely hoppy local IPA beer called Hoppelganger. The chefs were brought down to the kitchen one at a time, each accompanied by a single sous chef. The chef had ten minutes to ponder the ingredients and devise his or her dishes, then 50 minutes to cook. Points would be deducted if an ingredient was not used or if the chef went over time.
Nathin Bye was the first competitor, but he had barely opened his knife kit when he gashed his hand badly. Undeterred, but now wearing a latex glove, he prepared a roulade of arctic char, stuffing the delicate, coral-coloured fillet with beautifully seasoned mousse made from the char. This he served with a salad of crunchy julienned fennel and diced dragon fruit with subtly sweet vinaigrette. Sharing the plate was a seafood risotto made with fish stock and fennel fronds and a hint of lemon.Chef Bye's second dish was bulgogi-style quail, marinated in soy, ginger, garlic and demerara sugar from the common pantry. The mahogany-coloured skin was soft but delicious, the flesh tender and moist and strongly flavoured with the marinade. Chef Bye used the beer to make a sauce based also on veal stock and Asian flavours and raided the pantry to make boulangère potatoes, stewed in stock with soft onion and fennel.
Matthew Carmichael was the second chef, taking the station beside Chef Bye. He opted to debone the quail, then threading each filleted bird on a stick of fresh thyme. He lacquered the skin with a mixture of soy, ginger, garlic and the beer reduced to a sticky glaze together with the quail bones then roasted the birds until they were perfectly cooked, their skin crisp. Beneath the quail, he made a risotto using wilted spinach and scattered crunchy fried garlic over the mixture.
Every chef, it turned out, chose to use his or her arborio to make a risotto and it was fascinating to compare the different textures and flavours of each. Interestingly, it became clear that many of the judges had their own opinions about what constituted a perfect risotto texture - some preferring slightly softer rice, others looking for the moment of resistence inside each garin of arborio.
Chef Carmichael's second dish involved pan-frying the char, skin side down, and not turning the fillet, so that the skin was delightfully crisp and the flesh gradated from cooked-through opacity closest to the skin to a blushing pink rareness on the surface. He diced the dragon fruit - and for once the black dots of the seeds against the grey flesh of the fruit really did look like dice - and built a refreshing salad of raw shaved fennel with a ginger-scented vinaigrette. His sauce was a subtle lemon gastrique montéed with butter.
Jan Hrabec was our third competitor. She poached her char in a lemon-ginger broth giving the fish a gorgeously moist texture and changing the colour of the flesh to a creamy pink. She made a salad of crunchy fennel slaw and soft-diced dragonfruitdressed with olive oil, lemon juice and lemon zest. Green spinach leaves lay below the fish and a chiffonade of basil was the garnish.
For her second dish, Chef Hrabec enriched her risotto with soft onions sweetly caramelized in beer. She chose to present each judge with a whole quail, first poaching the birds in stock flavoured with the beer, brown sugar, soy and cinnamon, then frying them in a wok. Juicy and tender, the quail's own flavour rang true. David Lee was our fourth contender. He chose to present the char raw as a very coarsely chopped tartare seasoned with coriander and surrounded by crunchy sliced fennel with the dragon fruit added for visual effect and its own vague sweetness. He used his vinaigrette of olive oil and white wine vinegar as a marinade for the tartare, timing it perfectly so that the rosey surface of the fish had just started to cloud, taking the first step on a long journey that might have ended as a ceviche.
Chef Lee's risotto was the firmest of the morning's, a perfect texture for me, creamy but with each grain of rice having its own distinct identity. Subtle onion and cream enhanced the risotto, which served as a bed for the portioned and roasted quail. Some judges found the meat a tad too rare; others of us loved it for the same reason. Chef Lee's sauce was a buttery beer emulsion that allowed the hoppy bitterness of the ale to make its contribution.
Rob Feenie was up next. While his sous chef rapidly deboned the quail, he made a reduction of beer and chicken stock, using a little sugar to quell the beer's bitterness and butter to enrich it. This ended up as the sauce for the quail which he set atop a delectable risotto made with reduced cream, shallots, thyme and garlic, the rice just a tiny bit softer than Chef Lee's.Chef Feenie pan-seared his char, cooking it through but leaving it perfectly moist and enhanced with butter, thyme and lemon juice. He used the root and the fronds of the fennel in his salad, piling them on top of a slice of dragon fruit with a tangy sauce involving vinegar, lemon, olive oil, soy, ginger and beef stock.
Ivan Kyutukchiev was our sixth competitor. He portioned his char into identical pieces and pan-seared the fish, timing it perfectly until each fillet was cooked through, the juices nicely seized. He made his risotto with fish fumet that allowed the flavour of the fish to shine and sauced the plate with a dragon fruit coulis and a delicate lemon beurre blanc. His second dish featured whole quail marinated in soy and pale ale and simply roasted, the flesh wonderfully tender and moist. He served the birds with lightly sautéed spinach and accidentally repeated his two sauces on this dish too. Fortunately, they worked equally well with the quail.
The last competitor was Mathieu Cloutier. While some of the chefs had been visions of intense concentration, he and his sous chef were ostentatiously relaxed, chatting and joking with the crowd, Cloutier whistling as he stirred the risotto. He began by enhancing the pantry veal stock using carrot, tomato and other vegetables, thyme, rosemary, garlic, butter and plenty of the beer. In this he braised the quail legs, using the reduction again as a sauce for the perfectly pan-seared breasts. He served the quail with a risotto flavoured with basil and lemon zest.
For his second dish, he pan-seared the char fillets, cooking them through but leaving them beautifully moist, the skin crisp. Beneath the fish he set a salad of fennel and dragon fruit dressed with zippy, lemony, peppery vinaigrette freshened with a brunoise of tomato and a hint of mint. A chiffonade of spinach finished the dish.
The judges retired to a deliberation room, hoping that no chef had opted to prepare quail and risotto for the grand finale that evening.
The Grand Finale
The third element of the Championships is a Grand Finale party that looks very like the first half of a Gold Medal Plates regional event. The chefs were each at their own station in a great ballroom where they served their signature dish to the hundreds of guests. The mood was merry, the excitement intense and the line-ups long, though not for the judges. We sat at a table while gallant food runners brought us each dish and the wine the chef had chosen to accompany it. We had worked out an order in which the dishes would show to best advantage, starting with the lightest.
The first dish came from Mathieu Cloutier, a reprise of his gold medal-winning dish from the Montreal GMP gala. It starred a tiny, delicate rack of rabbit; each wee bone frenched and cleaned, the tender meat wonderfully moist and flavourful from being slowly confited in duck fat. Beside this was a quenelle of super-rich foie gras parfait and some miniature pink cubes of lightly pickled beet. What looked at first glance like a Brussels sprout turned out to be rabbit rillettes and foie gras wrapped with soft spinach leaves. A dramatic stripe of red beet caramel painted the plate while a single tooney-sized crisp of fried bread added scrunch to the dish.
The accompanying wine was the Huff Estates 2007 South Bay Chardonnay from Prince Edward County in Ontario, its rich, oaky personality a great compliment to the dish.
Michael Carmichael's dish was the second to be tasted. The first element was a large mussel shell filled with a piece of rich, creamy Qualicum Bay scallop, some sea urchin and salmon roe all bathing in a foamy coconut milk. It was a fabulously marine mouthful, the many sweet sea flavours splashing about on the tongue. The second element was a small slab of black cod lacquered with honey, lemon and ginger juice. The fillet parted into glossy petals at the touch of a fork. Beside it was a comma of carrot and coconut purée. The Closson Chase South Clos 2007 Chardonnay (a most delectable wine) picked up the scallop and coconut flavours beautifully.
Nathin Bye's dish was next. He had prepared a written description of his intentions at the start of the competition and the complex relationships on the plate were exactly as he had described them. Three elements... The first was a slice of sablefish and fruits de mer roulade using king crab and lobster morsels in a matrix of scallop mousse. The little disc lay in a cream Thai green curry with a dot of mango and rice wine jelly and a quarter-teaspoon of a sweet redcurrant and pepper compote. It was a most invigorating mouthful. The second part was a demitasse of corn and butternut squash mulligatawny, spiked with garam masala spices, the rich broth topped with a creamy cardamom foam. Two shortdough pastry fingers lay across the cup, sandwiched together around a dab of apple and currant jam. Slow-braised Alberta bison shortrib was glazed with "French-Asian fusion" blend of veal/bison demiglace with cream and a different garam masala spice blend. A dab of cauliflower and celeriac purée anchored the meat which wore a toupée of microgreens. Chef Bye's choice of wine was the excellent 2008 JoieFarm Rose from JoieFram Wines in B.C.'s Okanagan valley. David Lee also chose to reprise the dish he used to win the Toronto GMP event, though he added a number of different elements to the plate. Describing the dish to the judges, he brought over some wild ginger stems he had pickled in vinegar two years earlier and which he used to add flavour to a sour apple compote. A dab of this compote appeared on the long strip of very crispy chicken skin, served cold, that grounded his dish. On top of it was a two-inch piece of chicken breast cartilage, slow-cooked in a pressure cooker over 24 hours with ginger and coriander. Its texture was considerably softened but it still had the curious, alien soft-crunchiness of cartilage. Beside this, Chef Lee offered a couple of bites of confited chicken with creamy cauliflower purée and a silky ribbon of pancetta brought from his restaurant in Toronto, garnished with some colourful miniature flower petals and some marjoram leaves. It was a fascinating dish, beautifully paired with the off-dry 2007 June's Vineyard Riesling from 13th Street Winery in Niagara, the wine's honeyed, petrolly bouquet reaching out to the apple and ginger flavours in the dish.
Rob Feenie's dish was next up. He offered a trio of elements. The first was a rectangular crouton of spiced brioche topped with a little honeycomb apple butter and finished with a piped mousse of foie gras scented with maple and vanilla salt. An extraordinarily fragile shard of caramel lay on the top. The second element was a single raviolo filled with butternut squash and mascarpone and strewn with black truffle. The perfectly tender pasta was sauced with a black truffle beurre blanc. The third component was Canadian prime beef short rib slow-braised for 36 hours and sauced with a seriously reduced Peking duck jus. Vancouver Island chanterelles shared the plate and the general richness was leavened by some pickled celery leaves. Chef Feenie's chosen wine was Road 13's "Fifth Element" 2006, a fabulous Bordeaux blend from the Okanagan that thrilled the judges.
Ivan Kyutukchiev's dish starred pork belly brined for 24 hours and smoked over applewood. Fat and lean kept their distinct integrities and the subtle flavour was enhanced by a soft white bean purée. A spoonful of red pepper marmalade was marvellously supple, sleek and tasty, the natural sweetness of the peppers bringing out similar qualities in the pork. Alonside the meat Chef Kyutukchiev placed a red bell-pepper scented marshmallow that slowly melted, releasing its sweet fragrance into the sauce of smoked pork juices. The accompanying wine was Hillebrand Estates Trius red 2006, a traditional Bordeaux blend from Niagara.
Jan Hrabec's dish was the last one the judges tasted. She presented a sphere of Thai-spiced minced chicken on a sweet, richly aromatic sauce of lime, cilantro and coconut with a good kick of chili heat. A hollow hen's egg shell held a rich red coconut curry flan to be eaten with a tiny spoon, the mouthfilling flavours delighting the judges. Sesame crusted sticky rice held the egg shell in place and was quickly eaten together with the last element on the plate, a hot-and-sour chicken salad, the tangy meat sweetened by toasted coconut flakes. Row 13 2008 Riesling from the Okanagan was the chosen wine.
While the live auction began, the judges retired to their deliberation room to collate all the numbers from the three competitions. The final marks for the second, third and fourth-placed competitors were incredibly close - all within a single percentage point. David Lee came second, Matthew Carmichael third and Rob Feenie a heartbreakingly close-run fourth. The winner, by a margin of three percentage points was Mathieu Cloutier from Kitchen Galerie in Montreal. He had aced the Wine Pairing Challenge, had barely maintained a narrowing lead during the black box and won the Grand Finale with a clean decision. The judges returned to the party and the winners were announced. Chef Cloutier's name was greeted with a great roar of approval from the crowd who had adored his rabbit rack as much as the judges did. A rousing rendition of Oh Canada followed as the victorious chefs waved from the podium in a truly Olympian moment.Canadian Culinary ChampionshipsBe there as Canada's Gold Medal Plates winners compete in three thrilling and grueling challenges as they vie for the title of Canadian Culinary Gold Medal Champion!
Mystery Wine Pairing - Friday, November 27 (6:00 pm) at The Republic Nightclub
Chefs are given a mystery bottle of wine and must create a dish with local ingredients from Vancouver that best matches the wine in a set amount of time and with a set budget. Guests will have the pleasure of sampling these creations on the opening night of the competition.
The Black Box - Saturday, November 28 (9:30 am - 1:00 pm) at Sheraton Wall Centre
Chefs are given one hour to plan and create two dishes with no prior knowledge of the ingredients. VIP guests will have the opportunity to be in the kitchen and witness the action first hand.
The Grand Finale - Saturday, November 28 (6:30 pm) at Sheraton Wall Centre
On the final night of competition, anything goes. Chefs create their best dish for guests to sample. By evening's end, Canada's greatest Chef of 2010 will be crowned.
Purchase your tickets now!$495 plus GST per person
(before September 30, 2009)
This special price includes all three events PLUS attendance at the Rare Scotch Tasting, Grand Finale VIP Reception and front-of-line privileges throughout the weekend.
For more information or to order tickets:
Tina Oliver: 604-803-8813
or
CLICK HERE for the downloadable PDF order form
A block of rooms have been reserved at the St. Regis Hotel in Vancouver for the Canadian Culinary Championships. The special rate is $129 for standard room and $220 for a suite. To ensure you receive the special room rate indicate you are with the Canadian Culinary Championships (rate available until October 26). After this date, rates and availability of rooms cannot be guaranteed. To reserve: contact the hotel directly at 604-681-1135.
Calgary Chef awarded Canada's Best ChefPictures from the Canadian Culinary Championships
THE CANADIAN CULINARY CHAMPIONSHIP
Gold Medal Plates Canadian Culinary Championship was held at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel over the weekend of February 19 to 21. It was the ideal location for the competition - vast yet self-contained, with huge well-equipped kitchens and dramatic public rooms large enough to accommodate the hundreds of guests who came to observe and take part in the events. The hotel's executive chef, Martin Luthi, was a most generous host, providing everything we asked for, from the exclusive use of his busy banquet kitchen for three days to a dozen apprentices.
The competitors were the chefs who had triumphed at the Gold Medal Plates regional events across the country in the autumn of 2008. Here are their names, in alphabetical order, with a little information about their backgrounds supplied by the senior judge from each chef's respective city.
David Cruz is chef of Sage and won the Edmonton GMP event. David was destined to become a world-class chef. With both his mother and father accomplished chefs and restaurateurs, he was groomed from a young age in the culinary arts. His enthusiasm and passion for food and cooking eventually led him to the River Cree Resort and Casino's fine-dining haven, Sage. Prior to this he worked at La Cote Basque, Boulevard, Mary Elaine's, Evergreen and Simon Telluride, also at such restaurants as Masa's, Tru, Charlie Trotter's, Daniel, Motos, San Dominico, Spagos and La Folie. A key for David is respecting the source of the ingredients and keeping the chain from small growers and farmers to the restaurant table alive and well.
Deff Haupt is chef of Le Renoir at Le Sofitel hotel in Montreal. Born in Dortmund, Germany, Deff Haupt, age 42, apprenticed at the Hilton International in Mainz, Germany, and then worked for Emile Jung in Strasbourg, Paul Bocuse in Lyon, and Joel Robuchon in Paris before moving to Chile to work at a ski resort at Vallenevado. During that period, he trained the Brazilian team of chefs for the Bocuse d'Or culinary competition and married a Brazilian wife. Next stop was a ski resort at Val d'Isere, and then Berlin, where he was co-owner of a German-French brasserie near the Brandenburg Gate. Although his Berlin restaurant was a success and his guests at different times included George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Henry Kissinger, he moved to Canada in 2005 with the dream of opening a small restaurant in Mont Tremblant, Quebec. Le Sofitel beckoned in 2006 before that dream became a reality. Now Executive Chef of Hotel Le Sofitel and Restaurant Renoir, Montreal, Haupt describes his cuisine as French-based with German touches. He avoids endangered fish species and serves as much local Quebec food as he can.
Patrick Lin is Executive Chef of Senses restaurant in Toronto, the jewel in the crown of the Metropolitan Hotel. Lin was born in Hong Kong, and has spent much of his career shuttling between Hong Kong and Toronto. Gray Kunz was an early mentor for him at the Regency Hotel, where he embarked on his career in 1980; a decade later, he immigrated to Canada and became the chef at Truffles restaurant at the Four Seasons during executive chef Susan Weaver's tenure. Since then, he has returned to Hong Kong several times. In 2007, he came back to Toronto to take over the helm at Senses restaurant. He is best known for combining Asian ingredients with classic European techniques.
Hayato Okamitsu is chef of Catch Restaurant & Oyster Bar in Calgary. "The dreams of a young Japanese Chef can become a reality," write Adam Geml and Pat Insole. "After six years of unstinting dedication to Catch Restaurant & Oyster Bar, Hayato Okamitsu was named Executive Chef in 2008. Hayato has created Japanese-influenced dishes such as Wonton Crusted Tempura Prawns with Togaroshi Dip which quickly became a Catch signature dish and is still the most popular appetizer after seven years on the menu. Hayato's creativity shone through at Calgary's Gold Medal Plates Competition when his dish was the most ambitious of the night in terms of complexity, but truly set a record when it became the first vegetarian dish to win the Gold Medal honour."
Frank Pabst is chef of Blue Water Café in Vancouver. A master of local seafood, Frank Pabst came to Vancouver in 1993 after working in several Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe (among them Aachen's Le Becasse, the Hotel Negresco in Cannes, and Antibes' Restaurant de Bacon). He led the kitchen at Lumiere as chef de cuisine before opening Pastis in 2000, which won Best New Restaurant at that year's Vancouver magazine restaurant awards. As the executive chef at Blue Water Café since 2003, Pabst is recognised in the industry as a leader in celebrating local producers and sustainable-savvy fishermen.
Charles Part is owner-chef of Les Fougères and won GMP's Ottawa-Gatineau event. His first restaurant was in Toronto, a little gem in the Beaches called Loons. Together with his wife, Jennifer Warren-Part, Charles has been the chef-owner of Les Fougères in the village of Chelsea, Quebec (12 minutes from Parliament Hill) since 1993. Charles is British by birth, received his culinary training at the Westminster Hotel School and had his first restaurant experiences in London, UK. Charles and Jennifer's 2008 book, A Year at Les Fougères, won gold in the Canadian Food Culture category at the 2008 Cuisine Canada's Book Awards.
The chefs were all introduced at a small reception at the hotel on Thursday night. They introduced their sous chefs to the gathering (each chef was allowed to bring two from his restaurant, though Chef Cruz opted to bring only one friend). Then our host, Chef Luthi, introduced the apprentices who would assist each chef. It was also a chance for me to introduce my panel of judges...
From Montreal, Julian Armstrong, food writer for The Gazette and a founding member of both Cuisine Canada and the Association of Food Journalists. She is the author of A Taste of Quebec.
From Ottawa, Anne Desbrisay, restaurant critic of the Ottawa Citizen for the last 17 years. She writes about food, restaurants and travel for many publications and for CBC radio and is the author of Capital Dining, a Guide to restaurants in the National Capital Region.
From Toronto, Sasha Chapman, former food editor of Toronto Life who now writes regular columns about food in the Globe & Mail, Toronto Life and Report on Business Magazine as well as major U.S. and Canadian magazines such as Saveur and Chatelaine.
From Vancouver, Sid Cross is the wine and food guru for Western Living magazine and is a world-renowned wine and food judge. He has been honoured by the French and Italian governments and is the only Canadian to be awarded The Gourmet of the Year by The Society of Bacchus in the USA.
From Edmonton, Clayton Folkers is a world-class pastry chef, international judge and educator, and was the first pastry chef to captain the Canadian National Culinary Team. He has captained Culinary Team Alberta and Culinary Team Canada to gold medals, won the IKA Culinary Olympics and was twice named Canadian Chef of the Year.
From Calgary, John Gilchrist is a familiar voice on CBC Radio. He's also the author of eight national best-sellers on dining in southern Alberta. He has a column in the Calgary Herald, writes for dozens of magazines and teaches Food and Culture programs for the University of Calgary.
Last but not least, from Vancouver, Andrew Morrison is the restaurant critic for the Westender newspaper, the editor of Scout Magazine, and a regular contributor to Western Living and Vancouver magazines. He had a special role this weekend as our culinary referee, making sure all rules were followed during and between the three competitions.
The Thursday evening reception was the start of the first of these three events, the Wine Pairing Challenge. Each chef was given a bottle of the same wine with no label and an unmarked stopper. All they knew about it was that it was Canadian and that GMP's National Wine Advisor, David Lawrason, had selected it especially for the competition. The chefs were instructed to taste the wine and devise a dish that would perfectly match it. They had 24 hours to do this but there were certain added provisos that made the task a little more challenging. We asked them to make enough of their dish to feed 235 people (the number of guests at our Friday evening party) and we told them they were only allowed to spend a very small amount of money on ingredients - $350. They could go shopping wherever they wanted - in Banff, Canmore, Calgary - anywhere except in the hotel where we were staying. They could be as ingenious and creative as they wished with their shopping but they had to present us with receipts for everything they purchased. To mitigate things a little, we provided a communal pantry of basic seasonings, herbs, spices, oils and stocks, etcetera.
The Wine Pairing Challenge
On Friday evening, the event took place in the baronial splendour of one of the hotel's halls. The chefs' stations were arranged around the room. The guests were able to taste the mystery wine (later revealed as Inniskillin Okanagan Malbec 2005) and each of the dishes.
Deff Haupt took everyone by surprise by deciding to match this dense, hearty red wine with fish. He cooked a fillet of red snapper perfectly, leaving it juicy and sweet under a savoury crust of cinnamon, an element he had detected in the wine. For a sauce he made a red wine butter and a white wine butter which swirled together on the plate, both of them with a lovely silky weight and a well-judged citrus edge. The two colours of purple and white were echoed throughout the dish. Tangy, acidulated, finely chopped beets formed another bridge into the wine. The dish was finished with a little wilted spinach on top. The sauces, beets and cinnamon worked admirably with the wine, but the flavour of the actual fish struggled to make itself apparent.
David Cruz braised pork shoulder, giving it a delicious sweet flavour and a variety of textures. Beneath it he set a semi-purée of Tuscan cannelini beans topped with juicy chopped chard and sautéed crimini mushrooms that were particularly good with the wine. A streak of yellow carrot purée lacked flavour and focus, as did a streak of green basil oil. Crunchy shallots were the final garnish. The general lack of edge and acidity in the flavours of the food actually brought out those qualities in the wine a little more, accentuating its fruitiness.
Hayato Okamitsu also chose to work with pork, roasting a pork shoulder to tender succulence then slicing it for the plate. Working within his budget, he made peppery hand-pressed gnocchi (he found considerable pepperiness in the wine, as did several of the chefs). His sauce was a rich brown butter spiked with finely chopped beets. Some judges felt he served a little too much sauce for the dish. A few leaves of arugula proved a refreshing little garnish. On top lay a bacon and thyme "maxime" like a crisp transparent tissue of herbed bacon that was utterly delicious. The dish worked well with the wine, its homespun flavours in a good balance with the wine's intensity.
Patrick Lin prepared a relatively complex plate. He roasted a leg of lamb seasoned with garlic and cumin - it was delectably tender and sapid but perhaps a little too pungently "lamby" for the wine. Beside it he made a meat ball of miced pork stuffed with crab meat (subtle but fabulous and a better match than the lamb). The meatball was set on a disc of king oyster mushroom scored with a knife for textural interest. On top a single rasher of bacon had been crisped with honey. On the bottom two mustard greens provided green crunch and refreshment - lovely for the dish, irrelevent to the wine. The natural jus of the lamb was refreshed with diced granny smith apple.
Charles Part also chose lamb, carefully sourced from a farm outside Calgary. He cooked the shoulder sous vide, its flavour ending up a tad more subtle than Patrick Lin's roast. The jus was enriched by whole cloves of roast garlic, blackcurrants and a brunoise of root vegetables. A minted pea risotto had a perfect texture and seemed like a breath of summer. On top of the lamb, a bright green teaspoonful of salsa verde made with fresh herbs and anchovy was a deliciously intense condiment. Presentation was pretty and the dish's internal balances were very well achieved. Some judges felt it was too big a dish for the wine. If it had been a Cabernet Sauvignon, it would have been more successful but this soft Malbec turned out to be less powerful and structured than it appeared to be at first sniff.
Frank Pabst created a cabbage roll filled with a subtly flavoured mince of braised elk, pork shoulder and double smoked bacon. He bought two more bottles of the wine from Gold Medal Plates (at a price of $30 per bottle) and added them to the jus to create the dish's sauce. A celeriac and apple purée had a lovely fresh, rooty flavour. A mix of black rice and carrot, interestingly, produced a flavour close to sweet corn. On top was a mound of crunchy purple beet "straw".
The guests voted that night for a "people's choice" favourite, an award that went to Charles Part, by a considerable margin. The judges kept their marks private but Hayato Okamitsu was in first place with three other chefs clustered a few percentage points behind him - Charles Part, Deff Haupt and Patrick Lin.
The Black Box Saturday morning brought the intensity and drama of the Black Box competition, where each chef is given an identical group of secret ingredients. They must devise two dishes that will use these ingredients (all six must be used, though not necessarily in the same dish) and they have one hour to finish the dishes and plate one of each for each of the judges. Points would be deducted for failure to use all ingredients, for going over the allotted time by even a few seconds and for failing to provide the requisite number of dishes. Each chef was allowed to use only one assistant.
There was room in the hotel's banquet kitchen for three chefs to work at one time and for the crowd of fifty guests and camera crews, but we staggered the chefs working time to allow a 15-minute gap between each start time and a longer break in the middle so there were never more than three chefs competing at any one time. While the judges sat apart in the kitchen's servery, the chefs set to work.
The six mystery ingredients had been chosen by Gold Medal Plates regional senior judge, John Gilchrist. They had to be local Alberta product and we asked for a meat, a fish, a grain, a fruit, a vegetable and a dairy product. His selection was challenging indeed - a kilo of organically raised Alberta pork tenderloin with a good fat cap on it; three farmed rainbow trout, gutted but with heads on; a bag of rolled oats; a bottle of saskatoonberry syrup (fresh local fruit being impossible to find in Alberta in February); a bag of fabulously swet, crunchy organic carrots; a substantial wedge of a local gouda cheese, recently voted the fourth best gouda in the world at the cheese championship in Wisconsin.
First up was chef David Cruz. He filleted his trout, rolled the fillets in ground oats and served it with the carrots which he had prepared two ways, candied and as a deliciously spiced savoury purée with some real chili heat. For his second dish, he roasted the pork medium rare, sliced it and sauced it with a beurre spiked by the saskatoonberry syrup. He turned the gouda into a golden crisp that he used to garnish the pork.
Chef Hayato Okamitsu was next. He mixed the oatmeal with sesame and used it as a crust for the trout fillets. He turned the carrots into a purée scented with ginger from the communal pantry, added some wilted spinach and a rich brown butter sauce spiked with soy, clove and the saskatoonberry syrup. Visually, it was an exceptionally pretty dish. His herb-rubbed roast pork loin was sliced and set over a ragout of finely diced potato flavoured with shallots and the gouda and sharpened with a dash of a mustard and sherry vinaigrette.
Chef Charles Part was the third competitor. He rolled his trout fillets in the oats and pan-fried them, timing them to a perfect point of juiciness. He also borrowed pantry items, serving the fish with spinach and a confit of lemons that brightened the plate and the palate. For his second dish, he cut the pork into escalopes and sandwiched gouda in between then rolled the meat in panko crumbs and pan-fried it until the cheese melted. He used the saskatoonberry syrup carrots and other pantry vegetables to create a pickle that he served with the pork and crowned it with a perfectly timed poached egg. Its runny yolk formed the sauce for the pork dish.
Chef Patrick Lin aced the texture of the trout which he served as a sort of melt, crowned with molten gouda. Butter-sautéed spinach shared the plate and he sauced it with a lightweight tomato-herb bouillon. For his pork dish he pounded the meat into schnitzels, coated them with oats and deep-fried them, fisnishing the plate with a sauce meuniere and carrots spiked with the saskatoonberry syrup.
Chef Deff Haupt stuffed the pork tenderloin with gouda and fines herbes and roasted it off, slicing it and crowning the plate with a gouda crisp. He braised the carrots and scented them with curry spices, saucing the dish with a beef stock and rosemary jus spiked with saskatoonberry syrup. The trout fillets were simply pan-seared, which brought out their flavour beautifully, then set atop a sturdy galette of grated potato and oat flakes. He opted to make a version of the classic sauce Albertine using the pantry stocks hit with butter and herbs.
Chef Frank Pabst finished the competition. He coolly brined his pork loin for 20 minutes to tenderize the meat and served it with a delicious saskatoonberry gastrique sharpened with sherry vinegar, thyme and shallots. He used the gouda as a subtle component of a classic Pommes Anna, the tissue-thin potatoes fanned and pan-fried. Braised baby carrots picked up hints of ginger and shallot from their braising liquid. His trout fillets arrived crusted with mustard-spiked oatmeal then panfried. He set the fish over a delectable onion soubise, a little baby spinach and topped it with a clever crisp of the fried trout skin.
The judges were impressed by all the dishes, though they wondered why no one had thought to use the oats as a biscuit or be a tad more creative with the pork. Three chefs scored particularly highly in the black box competition: Hayato Okamitsu, Frank Pabst and Deff Haupt. But going into the third and final element of the competition it was still anyone's race.
The Grand Finale
For this event, each chef was allowed to create any dish he wished, the limits set only by his own imagination and the fact that he only had Saturday afternoon to pull the masterpiece together. He could bring in whatever ingredients he wished but he had to prepare enough to serve 300 guests and he could only be assisted by his two sous chefs (one in David Cruz's case) and his two hotel apprentices. Wine pairing was again a component. Each chef was instructed to work with the same winery he had chosen to pair with during the regional events, though not restricted to the same wine.Chef Deff Haupt presented three ethereal cornmeal gnocchi, light as any mousseline, smothered in a nutmeg-spiked parmesan sabayon and strewn with crispy little nuggets of pan-fried sweetbreads. Black winter truffle was grated over the dish and it was finished with a dramatic spiral of sweet tuile and some whisps of wheatgrass. His wine was from Prince Edward County, Ontario - Black Prince Winery's First Crush unoaked Chardonnay 2005.
Chef Frank Pabst chose to showcase the great seafood of the west coast. His plate consisted of three elements - the first a gorgeous raw kushi oyster, out of its shell and set on a mound of chopped cucumber jelly, topped with horseradish foam. A slice of raw Qualicum Bay scallop was turned into a delicate ceviche, its natural sweetness perfectly balanced against the tart citrus of the dressing. Beneath it was a spoonful of salad made from green seaweed and fine shavings of Humboldt squid. The third element was a cold parfait of sea urchin, its marine pungency mitigated by a cap of ponzu jelly. Dotted here and there were tiny amounts of green onion, preserved watermelon rind, black dots of a sauce made from sake, soy and nori, and a dab of tangy yuzu-sake "pudding". Chef Pabst paired his dish with Sumac Ridge Stella's Jay Brut 2004 sparkling wine from B.C.
Chef Hayato Okamitsu also presented a triptych. The first component looked like a cube-shaped chocolate smothered in a glossy black sauce. It turned out to be Alberta beef short rib braised sukiyake-style with a profound soy-based sauce. A finger of Quebec foie gras torchon gained extra flavour from a light soy cure; Chef served it on a tiny morsel of toast. A demitasse held a spectacularly rich and intense lobster bisque. Across the rim of the cup a lattice sesame crisp supported a shiso-scented B.C. spot prawn, out-of-season but still charming to most of the judges. A dab of ginger-yuzu "pudding" was as intense as any of the powerful flavours on the plate. Sumac Ridge Private Reserve Merlot 2005 was a fine match for the beef.
Chef David Cruz began with flatiron steak cut from Alberta kobe cattle. He grilled it rare and sliced it delicately - it proved surprisngly tender. On top he laid a julienne of carrot, apple, radish and micro greens. Two sauces competed for attention - a tangy lime emulsion and a rich dark shiitake sweet-and-sour sauce, made even more irresistible with brown sugar, garlic and Szechuan pepper. He astonished the judges by pairing it with See Ya Later Ranch Chardonnay 2007, a coup that proved surprisingly successful.
Chef Charles Part presented a dish he described as the dish he would choose for his last meal - "it means that much to me..." Its principal was a generous helping of confited Quebec moulard duck, rich, tender and moist with a skin that was crisp where it needed to be and fatty elsewhere. The flavour was wonderful, the sweetness enhanced by threads of orange zest. It sat on a thick disc of cooked pear with a spoonful of soft, tangy chevre cheese at its hollowed heart. Beneath that was an Agria potato rösti. The dish was finished with some forthright spinach and a delicious sauce of New Brunswick partridgeberries zapped with vinegar to become a classy ketchup. This dish was honest-to-goodness bistro taken to the bistro extreme. Some judges loved its democratic lack of fuss; others found it too plain. Chef Part paired it with a Prince Edward County wine, Huff Estates Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2005, made with Niagara grapes.
Chef Patrick Lin also offered duck - an extraordinary and complex five-part treatment of Ontario King Cole duck, to be precise. On a silver spoon was a sliver of sweet, cured, oolong-tea-smoked duck breast. A round slice of duck galantine using the duck's neck was garnished with a dot of kumquat compote and a slender lotus root crisp. Cured duck breast appeared with a Thai-style fruit salad all arranged on a round disc of iceberg lettuce - a refreshing, texturally complex mouthful that played with the fresh sweetness and tartness of the fruits and the salty fat of the cured duck. A foie gras ball had been rolled in a crust of crushed candied walnuts and then set on a cone of crisp wonton wrapper like some angelic ice cream cornet. The final iteration of the canard was a hollowed eggshell filled with a loose, lightweight foie gras custard brûlée topped with a sugestion of dried tangerine peel. The last component was amazingly delicious with the chosen Inniskillin Niagara Cabernet Franc Icewine 2006 - the weekend's most obvious wine-food epiphany. Chef Lin also presented a second wine - Jackson Triggs Okanagan Grande Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 that worked well with the smoked breast.
Opinion was divided about Chef Lin's dish. Some of us felt it was a three-Michelin-star effort; others found it too much, with one or two elements too many. When the scores were fed into the number cruncher, however, Chef Lin's dish won the day at the Grande Finale. Would that be enough to win the entire Championship? The judges retired to a quiet room and the math was done. The honour fell to me to return to the crowded ball room and make the announcement. First, I invited the retiring champion, Chef Melissa Craig, up on stage. Melissa had travelled across the country with us during the 2008 Gold Medal Plates campaign, cooking for the VIP reception in each city, and had proved a delightful companion, a great sport (even when half her crabs were left out of the refrigerator in Calgary) and a true champion. I speak for the entire GMP organisation when I say that she will always be part of our team.Joining us on stage was GMP CEO, Stephen Leckie and representatives of our two title sponsors, Denise Carpenter of Epcor and Mark Toner of GE. Then came the moment of truth. When all the numbers were crunched, the bronze medal went to Deff Haupt of Le Renoir in the Sofitel hotel, Montreal. The silver medal went to Frank Pabst of Blue Water Café in Vancouver. And the gold medal was awarded to Hayato Okamitsu of Catch in Calgary. He becomes the new Canadian Culinary Champion.
CALL 780-448-5957 TO RESERVE YOUR PLACE AT THE BEST CULINARY AND WINE EVENT IN CANADA OR CLICK HERE FOR THE DOWNLOADABLE PDF ORDER FORM!
Don't Miss...
The Gold Medal Plates Grand Finale
The most extraordinary culinary weekend you will ever experience hosted by Olympic Gold, Silver and Bronze Medallist, Adam Van Koeverden!
February 20 - 22, 2009
Banff, Alberta
Six chefs who have been crowned Gold Medal Plates winners across Canada will vie for the title of Canadian Culinary Gold Medal Champion! Chefs partake in three thrilling and grueling challenges in Canada's own intense 'Iron Chef' competition!
The six competing chefs:
Edmonton - Chef David Cruz, Sage Restaurant
Calgary - Hayato Okamitsu, Catch Restaurant
Toronto - Chef Patrick Lin, Senses Restaurant
Montreal - Deff Haupt, Le Renoir
Ottawa - Chef Charles Part, Les Fougères
Vancouver - Chef Frank Pabst, Blue Water Café
SPECIAL OFFER!
Extended to January 31, 2009
$1495 plus GST per couple
Canadian Culinary Champion - determined on February 21!
Your weekend itinerary . . .
Friday, February 20
Let the experience begin!
"The Canadian Culinary Championships, held in Whistler in 2006 and Toronto in 2007, is one of the most exciting and intense food competitions I've ever experienced. A must attend for food and wine lovers!"
Before 3pm - Check into your room at the Fairmont Banff Springs Resort and Spa
2:00 pm - The Ultimate Scotch Tasting
Enjoy a private tasting of some of Scotland's most precious and unusual single malts, hosted by Gold Medal Plates National Culinary Advisory, James Chatto.
The Welcome Reception and Mystery Wine Pairing (Competition I) - Mount Stephen Hall, Fairmont Banff Springs
"It was amazing to see how extraordinary the food creations were that was paired with the wines. This was a crowd-favourite event where the guests get to vote!"
Chefs will be presented with a mystery bottle of wine on Thursday night and are then required to prepare a dish that best complements the mysterious vintage.
6:00 pm
During the welcome reception guests will have an opportunity to pre taste the mystery wine alongside an exquisite selection of other wines representing Canada's finest wines and wineries. Meet and mingle with guests including our National Judges lead by James Chatto, Chef Melissa Craig, of Bearfoot Bistro in Whistler and 2007 Canadian Culinary Champion and our host Olympic Gold, Silver and Bronze medallist Adam van Koeverden!
7:00 - 9:30 pm
All six competing chefs will present the dish which they believe best complements the mystery wine. The wine is unveiled and the surprise-guests winemaker speaks to the wine. Guests will vote for who they feel best paired their dish with the wine. And you'll hear from Olympian Adam van Koeverden.
Saturday, February 21
The intensity mounts!
"It is an honour to see Canada's best chefs operate at such a high level. This event is highly entertaining, competitive and truly showed the substantial culinary talent and quality of wine that Canada has to offer. I'll be back to attend this year's event in Banff!"
1:00 pm - The Black Box (Competition II)
Kitchen, Fairmont Banff Springs
Chefs will receive only 10 minutes notice, and a black box containing a small array of diverse foods before having to produce and plate two spectacular dishes for the national judges. All in one very short hour! You won't get much closer to watching an Iron Chef type competition than this - you will be a spectator in the kitchen!
1:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Relax, spa, ski, shop in Alberta's playground - the world famous resort town of Banff located in the centre of Banff National Park, flanked on all sides by Alberta's Rocky Mountains!
6:00 pm - The Grande Finale (Competition III)
Van Horne Room, Fairmont Banff Springs
Guests will sample creations from all six gold medal contenders. Each competing chef will have a paired wine from the winery he competed with regionally. The evening will conclude with the crowning of Canada's Gold Medal Chef for 2008 and a celebration with superb entertainment!
ONLY $1495 plus GST per COUPLE*
Your weekend includes:
- 2 nights accommodation at the Fairmont Banff Springs Resort on Friday, February 20 and Saturday, February 21 in a Fairmont Room with champagne and chocolates in your room. Hotel taxes included.
- 2 tickets to the Mystery Wine Competition on Friday, February 20
- 2 tickets to the Black Box Competition on Saturday, February 21
- 2 tickets to the Grande Finale Event on Saturday, February 21
*Special offer extended to January 31, 2009. Original price $2,390 plus GST per couple
About Gold Medal Plates Since its inception, Gold Medal Plates has donated more than $2.3 million to support Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes and has elevated the profile of Canadian cuisine and wine.
Media enquiries:
Karen Petcoff
416-275-6844
kvpet@rogers.com
Karen Blair
416-778-6533
kblair@goldmedalplates.com
Visit www.discoverbanff.com for more information about BanffPictures from the Canadian Culinary Championships
February 11, 2008
Toronto, ON: Following three intensely competitive evenings, it was Chef Melissa Craig of Bearfoot Bistro in Whistler, who emerged as Canada's Best Chef as part of the Canadian Culinary Championships held in Toronto February 7, 8 and 9. Toronto's Anthony Walsh of Canoe was awarded the silver medal and Roland Ménard of Manior Hovey, representing the Montréal region, took home bronze.The competition began Thursday evening with a Black Box Challenge held in the instructional kitchens of George Brown College. The seven competing chefs had one hour to prepare two dishes using six mystery ingredients, which included two Georgian Bay whitefish, Top Meadow Farms flank steak, a celery root, a bag of Ontario peanuts, a honeycomb oozing honey and a handful of green plantains.
Friday evening was the Mystery Wine Pairing, whereby chefs prepared a dish they felt perfectly suited the mystery bottle of wine they had received the evening before, a delicious Closson Chase Chardonnay by winemaker Deborah Paskus. They were also given $400 to shop for ingredients to feed the 150+ guests in attendance. Invited guests were able to taste the chefs' creations and cast their own ballot. Emerging as the people's choice winners for this single event were: Gold - Anthony Walsh, Toronto, Silver - Michael Moffatt, Ottawa, Bronze - Judy Wu, Edmonton.
There were no obvious frontrunners heading into the Grande Finale event Saturday, held at Toronto's Arcadian Court. But it was Melissa Craig's King crab dish that captured gold. She presented a small cone of bamboo leaf with a tender flesh from the claw inside, garnished with tobiko and some soy-sauce pop rocks. There was a delicately flavoured crab croquette, spherical and golden-crusted, sitting on a little pool of mango-basil purée. Lastly, a demitasse of king crab soup - white, full-bodied with coconut milk and with a gentle lemongrass and chili hit. Melissa paired the dish with a bracingly acidic Tantalus Vineyards Riesling 2006 which the judges deemed to be the best wine match of the evening.
An underdog in the truest sense, Melissa Craig was a last minute contender, asked to step in as the silver medallist representing Vancouver when the city's gold medal chef, Pino Posteraro could not make the national finals.
The judges - all leading Canadian food and wine critics, headed by James Chatto - were impressed with each of the competing chefs' dishes that best exemplified creativity, brilliance and individuality during each of the competitions. Chatto, author and restaurant critic for Toronto Life Magazine, said that "there was much more parity between the contestants this year" at the final competition. "There was no clear winner from the beginning. All seven chefs were within six percentage points of each other, which meant that anybody could win it which was quite exciting."
Stephen Leckie, CEO and Founder of Gold Medal Plates, said "Gold Medal Plates was delighted to stage this year's Canadian Culinary Championships in Toronto. The three evening competition was highly entertaining for guests, competitive and truly showed the substantial culinary talent and quality of wine that Canada has to offer."
The weekend was graced with numerous celebrities such as Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo, Sonja Smits, Justin Trudeau and triple Olympic medalists - Marnie McBean and Curt Harnett.
Gold Medal Plates would like to thank each of the chefs for participating in the Canadian Culinary Championships which celebrates Canadian excellence in cuisine, wine and athletics.
The seven competing chefs:
Melissa Craig of Bearfoot Bistro in Whistler (Vancouver)
Paul Rogalski of Rouge (Calgary)
Judy Wu of Wild Tangerine (Edmonton)
Anthony Walsh of Canoe (Toronto)
Michael Moffatt of Beckta Dining and Wine (Ottawa-Gatineau)
Roland Ménard of Manoir Hovey (Montréal)
Martin Ruiz Salvador of Fleur de Sel (Halifax)
About Gold Medal Plates Since its inception, Gold Medal Plates has donated more than $2.4 million to support Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes and has elevated the profile of Canadian cuisine and wine.
Media enquiries:
Karen Petcoff
416-275-6844
kvpet@rogers.com
Karen Blair
416-778-6533
kblair@goldmedalplates.com