The Canadian Culinary Championships announced today that Rutland Middle School in Kelowna and Mount Paul Community Food Centre in Kamloops are this years’ regional recipients of some of the funds raised at the annual national culinary competition.
Some of the funds were given to Rutland Middle School, this year the will be able to have a marching band and a jazz band.
“The grants are awarded in schools through MusiCounts BandAid program and we are happy to announce that Rutland Middle School has been chosen,” said Lisa Pasin, co-founder of the Canadian Culinary Championships.
“In addition, a grant is being provided to Mount Paul Community Food Centre for the Kitchen Mentor program, which is a unique national food security program which provides youth the opportunity to learn how to grow, cook and share good food.”
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The 2019 Canadian Culinary Championships (CCC) presented by Deloitte. is taking place this weekend in Kelowna Feb. 1 to 2. The eleven competing chefs will compete for gold as they participate in three gruelling events over two days testing their skills, creativity and endurance.
Each of the eleven chefs competed in their home city/province at a regional Kitchen Party event. The Gold winning chefs are now arriving in Kelowna, the home of the Canadian Culinary Championships.
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On Thursday, the chefs will be welcomed at the CCC’s opening reception where they will each receive a bottle of the mystery wine. Each chef must then create a dish with local ingredients that compliments the wine. They will spend Friday morning shopping for the ingredients for their dish which they will serve to the 350 guests attending the event that evening. In addition to the challenge of having to ‘guess’ what wine they are pairing their dish with, they are also only given a small budget of $500 to purchase all of their ingredients and they must shop for their ingredients on Friday using taxis as their transportation.
Competition II is the Black Box competition where everyone is locked into a room until it is their turn to compete. Chefs are called one at a time and are presented with a box of seven ingredients sourced from across Canada. Each chef has 10 minutes to determine what dish they will create using the seven ingredients and a communal pantry. Then they have 50 minutes to prepare their dish to present to the judges.
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The final competition is the grand finale where chefs will create their ultimate dish paired with their Canadian beverage. “The chefs will fly in with coolers filled with as much prepped food as they can manage for the 550 guests who will be in attendance on Saturday night,” said chair Judy Burns, “With less than five hours between the black box and the grand finale competitions it is a competition of stamina and intelligent preparation to try to take home the gold.”
The finale closes with the announcement of the top three medal winners being called to the podium.
There are limited tickets available for Friday’s Mystery Wine Pairing and Saturday’s Grand Finale events. Tickets can be purchased online at greatkitchenparty.com/ca/culinary-championships/
James Chatto, Canadian Culinary Championships National Culinary advisor and head judge will lead a judging panel consisting of judges from across the country.
The competitors are:
- Takashi Ito from AURA waterfront restaurant + patio in Victoria B.C.
- Davina Moraiko from RGE RD in Edmonton, Alta.
- Dave Bohati from Murrieta’s in Calgary, Alta.
- Christopher Hill from Taste Restaurant Group in Sask.
- Jesse S. Friesen from The Merchant Kitchen in Winnipeg, Man.
- Elia Herrera from Colibri in Toronto, Ont.
- Yannick LaSalle from Restaurant Les Fougères, in Chelsea, Que.
- Jason Morris from Pastel in Montreal, Que.
- Irwin MacKinnon from Papa Joe’s, Charlottetown in P.E.I.
- Thomas Carey from Fresh Twenty One, Dartmouth in N.S.
- Katie Hayes from Bonavista Social Club in N.L.
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