You get attached to students as if they are your “own”. First they hang on to your every word, getting clogs just like you, sharpening stones just like you…soon they test you, changing a few ingredients here and there, before you know it, like “teens” they don’t want to hear from you too much and you have to let go (graduation day)…a few weeks/months pass, then they come back to say hi, see what’s for dinner (in our case lunch) tell us about their lives and sometimes you are a fly on the wall and see how much they’ve “grown up”.
That is what happened to me last night at the Chef’s table society fund raiser dinner at the Opus Hotel in Yaletown Vancouver. 7 of the better known Vancouver chefs joined 60 guests for dinner, the food , a 7 course dinner was prepared by their sous chefs, assisted by culinary students like Willie, John, Jorge and Slavita from the Academy.
One of these sous chef was our very own Hugh from Aurora Bistro. Hugh graduated from the Academy 2 1/2 years ago and after a few observations at the bistro was hired by chef/owner Jeff Van Geest. Since then we have seen Hugh off and on. Last night I was that fly on the wall, observing him , noticing how much confidence he has gained, maturity and how organised he was. With aplomb he “directed” the platting of “his” dish a coq au vin on hand-made egg parpadelle noodles, yes it was good and well seasonned, but I knew it would be. Hugh knows how to cook good food. What I was impresssed with was his focus and composure to prep/execute and orchestrate one of the 7 courses for a crowd of “who’s who in Vancouver” paying $250.00 for the dinner.
So like a proud parent, I shook his hand, told him it was a job well done and that I was proud of him and without lingering too much in front of his peers (not wanting to embarass him), I left into the night.
PS for more students stories visit out Blog under Food and Industry talk.
Chef Christophe

A lot of long hours & effort from the Academy’s Pastry Chef  Instructor Tim Muehlbauer & the current Professional Pastry & Bread students were rewarded last weekend at the 2008 Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival.

A popular feature event at the festival is the “Vintners brunch” held at the Vancouver Convention Center. Approximately 20 hotels, restaurants, catering outlets & schools catered to 500 guests. The guests are free to “roam” around the room & try food from as many booths as their stomach can handle.  Each of the 20 participating businesses are given a wine to pair with either a savoury or sweet item appropriate for a brunch. 

Production of 500 portions of this dessert started on Friday & completed on Saturday.
This enriching experience was topped by being awarded the “best food & wine pairing” honour out of the 20 competitors - a great feather to place in anybody’s cap, especially for these soon to graduate Professional Pastry & Bread students.
Congratulations to all!

Chef Christophe
Owner, Chef Instructor

My class & I were given the task of pairing a dessert with the Mission Hills, Reserve, Riesling Ice Wine.  As a group we tasted the wine & identified the flavour profile.  Honeysuckle, lemon/citrus, green apple, elderberry, syrupy are some of the connections we made.  The main rule of pairing a dessert & wine is that the wine must be sweeter than the dessert. With that in mind, we came up with some great ideas & decided upon this dessert:

Fireweed Honey Mousse, Almond Dacquoise, Nougatine Biscuit Sponge, with a Lemon-Thyme Sable, & crème anglaise.

Not only are the flavours important to consider but also the textures of the different components, the techniques & eye appeal all come together to give an overall flavour of the dessert.

It takes years to develop a great palette & this was a great lesson to start teaching & understanding the difference between the “palette” compared to the skills & techniques needed to make a dessert.  There are many things to consider when creating food.  A trained palate can coordinate; orchestrate all the other skills & techniques needed to be creative & come up with new ideas.

Not only was this a good lesson in developing our palates but a lesson in preparing volume, as we made 600+ pieces.  Every piece must be consistent/perfect.  Attention to detail is a must.  Preparing the dessert, transferring the dessert from the school to the hotel, portioning & plate presentation are all critical elements.

On the day of the event, as a class we set up the booth.  Greeted the customers & had the opportunity to sample wine/food pairings from the other participants.

It was a great experience for all  & I look forward to participating again next year with the 2009 class.

Congratulations team & thanks for all of your hard work!
Chef Tim

Jerah Verville, one of our current One Year Professional Culinar & Pastry/Bread Making students, was chosen to participate in this year’s “For the Love of Fish” Sustainable Seafood Competition. These are her comments about the experience, from start to finish. And congratulations Jerah for taking home the Silver medal!

Jerah’s dish (pictured at right) was called Tapas Pescado & featured:
-White salmon brandade with chorizo, olive oil poached chum & tapanade
-Orange pomegranate salad with whitefish crackling, smoked paprika vinaigrette
-Sunchoke puree, rapini & serrano ham with seared sablefish 

For the Love of Fish – 2007 Culinary Competition
First of all, kudos to Seachoice for organizing this competition to raise awareness on an issue that deserves much more attention. This was my first competition of any kind and I feel honored to have had the chance to participate in, and support something that I believe in so strongly.

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Ann Reynolds, one of our Professional Culinary students, provides her perspective on the whole competition experience.  Ann tells us about it from the day she found out she had been chosen to compete in this year’s Sustainable Seafood challenge, to the actual competition itself where she modestly refuses to mention that she took the Gold Medal for the student division.  Congratulations Ann!

Ann’s dish was a Dungennes Crab Trio (pictured at right) featuring:

- Chawan mushi shooter of crab & roasted red pepper, with a black sesame tuile
- Crab & ricotta ravioli, carrot & leek fondue, beurre blanc & gremolata
- Crab & confetti salad with poppy-seed vinaigratte & orange-herb cracker 

Chef Ian called me into his office on a Monday morning to ask if I had enjoyed a relaxing weekend? Lucky I had spent the weekend up in Whistler…..little did I know it would be my last free weekend for a while!!

I was swiftly brought back down to earth from the initial high of being chosen to compete by the gruelling practice schedule placed in front of us….  Chef Ian had drawn up an intricate plan for the coming month…. maybe he could have saved time by just saying we would be in the kitchen everyday. For the next 4 weeks we would eat, sleep and dream competition. I would go through sequences in my sleep: rolling pasta, nightmares about forgetting everything, and even being chased by crabs who were angry that my dish was not as ’sustainable’ as implied.

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The Academy’s philosophy is, and always has been, about training cooks for their first day of employment in the industry. Therefore, we focus on what is happening in the kitchen as much as, if not more, than the final plates.  We know that what is expected from our students is a keen sense of workmanship that includes multi-tasking, problem solving, clear communication, understanding of costs & best usage of food with a minimum of waste, as well as impeccable station & personal hygiene.

Having said that, we recognize that encouraging and coaching some of our students to enter and participate in the right type of competition can have tremendous benefits for the right individuals.  There are basically three types of competitions:

• Individual or group Cold competition, where participants often bring a lot of their food items pre-prepared and finish assembling on site
• Individual Hot competition, where participants must (within a given time) perform as many skills and techniques as possible in front of judges & present finished plates.
• Fundraising competitions, where larger groups from hotels, restaurants & schools come together to perform a dish for 100-500 people.

Over the years the Academy students have successfully participated in several Hot Individual competitions. We also feel that we owe it to the community around us to participate in the fundraising group competitions whenever feasible.

Competition is not the Academy’s focus, but usually we do offer the opportunity to our professional students to compete in either Individual Hot or Group Fundraiser competitions. Here is a summary of some of the students successes in the past.

Four times in a row now our school wins gold-silver in individual student culinary competitions; the latest came this past Saturday at the Art Institute as our students, Ann and Jerah, placed 1st & 2nd in the “For the Love of Fish: Culinary Voices for Sustainable Choices!” student competition.  And there’s a reason why our students have always done well.

Firstly, their instructor and coach, Chef Ian, who mentors them through the preparations (and who only coaches students that are completely committed to best).  This means hours after school and on weekends practicing, and practicing, and practicing.  Chef Ian is a stickler for details, especially when it comes to movements.  Everything is timed and choreographed to give the student the best opportunity to incorporate as many complex techniques in the given time.  In competition, and fine dining, that’s what cooking is all about.

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