NAIT’s hallways are usually pretty dead on weekends.
However, last Saturday, anyone walking by the culinary labs would have been hard-pressed to miss the mingled fragrances of veggies bubbling in broth, sautéed prawns in curry-coconut sauce and the sweet scent of pastry fresh from the oven.
Inside the two massive commercial kitchens, 57 aspiring chefs were chopping, frying, spicing, torching and glazing a three-course dinner.
Nineteen regional teams with three cooks per team put the sizzle into cooking during the 13th annual High School Culinary Challenge. Two dynamic teams from St. Albert were part of the white-hatted brigade.
Bellerose Composite High School’s three-person team included Charlotte Campbell, Paige Erickson and Robert Ross while St. Albert Catholic High’s male trio consisted of Matthew Rose, Tyler Stewart and Vardan Grigoryan.
The challenge is an opportunity to win a trophy and savour bragging rights for a year. As an added plus, every competitor can apply to receive a fully paid two-year tuition scholarship to NAIT’s internationally recognized culinary program. Up to three scholarships are presented each year.
The challenge was to prepare a bowl of minestrone, a salmon and prawn main course served with a rice pilaf and vegetables as well as a sweet rhubarb tart with a streusel (crumb) topping.
“In my mind, the salmon was the hardest to cook. Minestrone is also hard to cook because different vegetables cook at different rates. But the rhubarb tart gave them the creative freedom to do what they wanted,” said Chef Paul Campbell, program chair of NAIT’s culinary program and co-chair of the High School Culinary Challenge.
The Bellerose team competed to have fun and challenge their skills. Each member’s strategy was to choose a dish and focus on it. Charlotte Campbell just completed the minestrone and was cleaning up when she spoke with the Gazette.
“I had two hours to prepare the soup. There was plenty of chopping, but because I had so much time to prepare, I definitely felt ready,” she noted, adding the biggest bump was adapting to NAIT’s gas-fired stoves.
Bending over the stove, Paige Erickson attempted to maintain a careful balance between overcooking salmon steaks and prawns while keeping the rice pilaf and vegetables at a warm, even temperature.
“I definitely learned time management. I’m not a good organizer,” said Erickson. She described herself as a competitive person who likes to win.
Meanwhile at the team’s station, Robert Ross topped a rhubarb tart with swirls of Italian meringue and brown sugar. Using a baker’s torch, he attempted to lightly tan the meringue.
“They (NAIT instructors) gave us the basic recipe. The challenge was making it our own, I pretty much changed everything about the tart,” explained Ross.
He used his experience working at Pip to convey his vision by crowning the dessert with a delicate chocolate filigree that was as attractive to the eyes as to the taste buds.
After the trio presented the dessert and were packing their utensils, Erickson was confident they did well.
“Our team had the skills and we were very good at communication. We made ourselves a team, and that’s why we’ll do OK.”
As students whipped ingredients into mouth-watering dishes, Chef Harjeet Mehdwan offered a run-down on where judges score or take away points.
“In the kitchen we look for organization, sanitation and teamwork. Sanitation carries 25 per cent of the mark. It is important not to cross-contaminate. Organization in how they work together and how they help each other is also important. In the tasting, we look at the time and the temperature of the food – if the food is hot and the plate is hot. We look at taste, the seasoning, the flavours,” said Mehdwan.
The St. Albert High team is serious about cooking but also enjoys a good joke or two. When asked what their strategy was, Tyler Stewart grinned, “We’re winging it.”
Actually the trio not only started practicing in the new year, they also mapped out a detailed schedule a military chef would be proud to call their own. The schedule was divided into three columns (one for each cook) and broken down into 15- and 30-minute segments. It provided a guideline where at any given time, one of the cooks could see what was expected.
“Now it’s all basically executing it,” explained Vardan Grigoryan.
Stewart, by virtue of his experience working at Dairy Queen, took the lead baking the dessert tart and assisting where needed. Grigoryan chopped vegetables for soup even as Matthew Rose stick-handled the rice and fish.
Grigoryan’s fragrant smelling soup, a mix of carrots, zucchini, onions, garlic and cabbage, had a robust, homey look. While the veggies cooked, Grigoryan took a handful of grated parmesan and melted it into a pancake. Once the parmesan melted, he moulded it around a shot glass to create a crispy, basket-shaped soup garnish.
“This is a very rustic-style soup,” Grigoryan noted. “I love cooking savoury dishes. I come from an Armenian family that makes big plates of food.”
Unlike Canadians from either the east or west coasts, Albertans are tentative about cooking fish. Beef is our forte. Not so with Rose, who is applying to NAIT’s culinary program.
“There’s a lot of parts to it. Everything has to be a certain cut to finish. I’m used to cooking fish, but if I was dropped in headfirst, it might be a bit of a challenge,” said Rose. He added the team had three complete dry runs and an instructor from NAIT visited providing information and cooking tips.
Once dessert was taken to the judging table, a visible look of relief swept across the trio’s faces.
“I feel much better now that the pressure is off,” said Rose. “Some of our plates were not the strongest, but we feel confident we did well.”
Challenge winners and scholarship recipients will be announced at the High School Culinary Challenge Awards Dinner taking place at the Edmonton Convention Centre on March 9 at 6:30 p.m. The menu served is identical to the one the students cooked.
Single tickets are $35. Tables of eight are $245. Funds raised go toward the scholarship fund. Tickets are available at highschoolculinarychallenge.ca or at [email protected] or at 780-475-2433.
