Selkirk Cooking Students Turn on the Heat at Hot Competition
Students from the Professional Cook Training Program at Selkirk College pulled off their best results ever at the 13th Annual Jr Hot Competition in Vancouver, BC bringing home 6 gold, 6 silver and 2 bronze medals.
Placing second overall in the College category, Selkirk College’s team, which included 12 individuals, found the experience to be extremely beneficial. “It was a real self-esteem boost,” explains medal winner Kelli Bialkoski. “We had to perform well under a lot of pressure and had an opportunity to connect with some of the top chefs in Vancouver. The fact that we brought home a silver medal for the entire College category was an added bonus!”
Bialkoski won two gold medals for her self-invented dishes, Buckwheat Chapiti and Mushroom Sauté with Sea Asparagus and Thai Mango Salsa with Miniature Mixed Vegetables along with a silver medal for the Team Competition which involved cooking student Katie Foster and Chef / Instructor Randy Davis.
The BC Chefs’ Association puts on the Annual Hot Competition at Vancouver’s BC Place Stadium as part of the BC Foodservice Expo. This year’s competition took place on January 25 & 26. Individuals from several cooking levels competed in categories such as Professional, Team, Apprentice, College and High School during the two-day event.
Participants were required to write their own recipes and to cook them within 30 minutes in front of a panel of judges. Recipes from the competition will be showcased and available in a “Heart and Stroke Foundation Cookbook” later this year.
Other medal winners from Selkirk College included Steve Brown, Kelli Mitchell (gold – College category), Katie Foster (double gold – College category) Cora Grosch, Caitlin Laurie, Rachel Markin (silver –College category), Chef / Instructor Simon Parr (silver – Professional category) and Kiersten Jansen and Ryan Lane of Nelson’s LV Rogers (bronze – High School category).
Practice time for the competition was 100% outside of the regular cooking program curriculum and students required marks of a B+ average or higher to enter. “The preparation for this competition took a lot of hard work, passion and extra effort,” says Chef / Instructor Randy Davis. “I’m really proud of my group – the industry is fortunate to have these talented individuals. I’m sure they will be successful in all that they choose to do once they move on from our program.”
First published on February 20, 2009
