Culinary students hope to turn up the heat at competition

By Sam Normand

Loyalist culinary students will be competing for the first time in the annual Taste Canada Cook the Books competition.

The team from Loyalist consisting of students Jeff Kirkland, Tyanne Sim, and Mackenzie Kozdas will be at the event in Toronto on Sunday.

Karin Desvoux, a culinary professor at the college, is their coach.

“They’re taking it very seriously and they’ve put some very professional spins on the elements of the dish,” said Desvoux. “They’ve really reached into the techniques they’ve learned over the last two years and I think they have a really good chance of winning.”

When the competition approached, Desvoux said she knew which students she would pick.

“All three of them are absolutely excellent students. They’re very focused, they’re very driven. They’re probably harder on themselves than we could ever be. That’s the kind of person that you need a competition like this.”

Despite feeling the pressure of competing for the first time at the event, team leader Jeff Kirkland said his team is up to the challenge.

“I’m not terrible worried,” said Kirkland. “We’ve done a number of run-throughs already. We’ve refined our ingredients; we’ve refined our recipes and techniques. We’re not worried so much about the competition so much as just going down to the show and putting on a great show for everybody.

“All I can say to the competition is: Watch out.”

The prize up for grabs is a certificate and a letter of recommendation from Taste Canada, a powerful statement of competence.

“It’s one of those things where there are certain letter of recommendations where if you go to a place of employment and say ‘these are my references’, they’ll hire you on the spot,” said Kirkland.

“It’ll get you any job you want,” added Sim.

This year, 10 teams will be competing in the Cook the Books competition, which challenges students to create dishes from a Canadian cookbook. Students have half an hour on stage to prepare the meal before it’s judged.

The team will be making chilli mignon from Tina Robert’s Two Sisters. The dish consists of a beef tenderloin steak, cheese, chilli sauce, and guacamole. As part of their spin on the meal, the team has added corn polenta and cilantro garnish.