BC's top up-and-coming chefs have been crowned at the BC Foodservice Expo. After multiple heats, the champions of BC Chef of the Year and BC Chinese Chef of the Year were announced at the end of day on Monday, January 30 at the Vancouver Convention Centre West.
Presented in partnership with the BC Chef's Association and the Canadian Culinary Federation, the competitions are open to chefs from across the province. The competitions are an important stop on the circuit for chefs making a name in the business. Canada's Bocuse d'Or competitor, Chef Alex Chen, first competed at the BC Foodservice Expo several years ago.
The Roasted Competition is a knock-out black box event, with all competitors preparing appetizers, but only top contestants going on to prepare main courses and, ultimately, desserts. Twelve competitors begin and only one takes home the title. Chef Jeff Kang, sous chef at Diva at the Met, impressed judges with his skill, creativity and quick thinking, going on to win the final round over Chef Dan Craig from the Delta Burnaby (2nd) and Chef William Tse from The Sandbar (3rd). Chef Dan Craig's team entry from the EBO Restaurant at the Delta Burnaby won the Team challenge earlier in the day.
The first round saw Chef Kang use black box ingredients of yellowtail and mussels to produce an olive oil poached yellowtail with mussels, served with a ginger scallion mayonnaise foam and a garden salad. For the main course, Chef Kang's black box included sirloin and crocodile - something Chef Kang reports having tried only once. He prepared a dish of pan-seared beef, black garlic parsnip puree, heirloom carrots, garlic foam and crispy crocodile. Quinoa, vanilla and California walnuts were removed from the final dessert black box. His winning creation was a blueberry sorbet and microwave bread, served with candied quinoa, walnut crumbles and white chocolate vanilla tuile.
“In this case, the quinoa and crocodile were definitely the ingredients that tested me the most,” said Chef Kang. “But with a black box competition like this, the biggest challenge is the mental one - having no idea of what ingredients you’ll be given to cook with and then worrying about it for the full 30 minutes of each round! But this is why I am doing competitions like this, to try things I’ve never done before and to test myself.”
Chef Kang is not a stranger to competition, having won the Fetzer Great Beginnings Appetizer Challenge at the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival in March 2011.
The other top honour went to Chef Kent Wong, sous chef at the Fraser Court Seafood Restaurant in Vancouver. The inaugural BC Chinese Chef of the Year competition was played out over two days with 10 competing teams cooking an original dish with predefined proteins on Sunday and a black box round with mystery proteins on Monday. Each team was made up of a chef and an assistant. The challenge followed the World Association of Chefs Societies international standard - with the winner being the highest scoring team over both days of competitions. Chef Wong's assistant for the competition was Chef Mike Lee, who also happens to be his mentor.
The competition was added to the show this year thanks to a growing partnership between three BC Chinese Chef societies and the BCCA and CCFCC.
"Vancouver's international culinary reputation continues to grow annually and providing professional development and professional recognition for chefs of all styles and regions is the next logical step in our development as a culinary destination," said Chef Donald Gyurkovits, president of the Canadian Culinary Federation.
"It was a real honour to witness history being made at the show," commentsed Garth Whyte, president and CEO of the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association. The first annual competition was possible thanks to sponsors Discover and Lee Kum Kee.
Chef Kang joins runner-up Chef Dan Craig as the two special BC competitors at the Discovered Culinary Competition, held March 4-6 at our sister show, the CRFA Show, in Toronto.
The BC Foodservice Expo is British Columbia's foodservice event of the year. Follow us on social media or visit our website http://www.bcfoodexpo.ca/ to stay abreast of details about the 2013 show.
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