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Winning
Chefs Move Beyond Traditional College Fare
It's not what dorm food used to be. After a week of classes and cooking opportunities at Collegiate Cuisine 2000, nearly 70 food service workers from educational institutions around North America came together on 17 teams to compete for medals on June 23. Some competitors were food-service administrators, some were dieticians, and some were chefs or cooks. When the powdered sugar dust had settled in the Hampshire Dining Commons, local chefs were gold- and bronze-medal winners. Gold-medal team members were Ada "DeeDee" Lafland, cook II in the Worcester Dining Commons, William Brizzolara of North Carolina State University, Chris Cox of the University of Western Ontario and Stephen Lee of McMaster University of Ontario. The team impressed the judges with their Asian spice fettucine salad with shitake, cucumbers and pepper relish and red-wine viniagrette; roasted vegetables and ham; chicken pesto roulade with balsamic maple jus and basil; and a dessert of peach and marscapone. "This week has been very, very intense," said Lafland, after learning her team had won. "The first day in the kitchen was great, the second day was even better, and then today is the end result. There is so much talent here, and every team is absolutely fabulous." Paul Rudolph of Tufts University, Andrew Bland of Arizona State University, Mark Ford of Havergal College in Ontario and Rob McFarland of Keene State University were responsible for the silver-medal effort. They produced a marinated vegetable salad with cinnamon-Tabasco viniagrette; Mediterranean herb seared cod; saffron couscous; wilted spinach with toasted hazelnut and bacon seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and nutmeg; herb oil red pepper coulis; and a dessert of citrus mousse. Bronze-medal winners were Tony Esposito of Amherst College, Malley Sisson of Kansas State University, Steve Mangan of James Madison University in Virginia and George Schmidt of the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The team presented a salad of mixed greens, lime and cilantro-smoked shrimp; leek stuffed with steamed arborio rice and red sweet ginger sauce; pork wrapped in peanut-laced forcemeat; pork and corn dumplings; potato triangle, cauliflower and mixed vegetables with orange and green curry sauces; and a dessert of strawberry-ginger crisp with fresh fruit salad and cookie. The entries were judged on taste, texture, temperature and presentation, in accordance with American Culinary Association guidelines. Judging was performed by Frank Lattuca, head of Hotel, Restaurant and Travel Administration, Ken Samonds, associate professor of Nutrition, master chef David St. John-Grubb, Springfield Union-News food columnist Hugh Robert, and Brian Lapis of Channel 22 and Tom Bevacqua of Channel 40, both meteorologists. Kenneth Toong, director of Dining and Retail Food Services coordinated the conference, which was sponsored by Auxiliary Services. |
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