GREC's Iron Chefs battle it out in Belleville

Mar 06, 2014

Four students from the Granite Ridge Education Centre in Sharbot Lake recently took part in the Junior Iron Chef Competition on February 9 at Loyalist College in Belleville. The goal of the annual competition is to educate high school students in the culinary arts while exposing them to the viability of a career in the field. At the same time the competition gives the college students a chance to share their skills with younger high school students. The four GREC students who participated in the competition were Hilary Howes, Kaitlyn Cadieux, Cadence Cumpson and Joelle Parr. They competed on February 9 against teams from Loyalist College Vocational Institute, St. Peters Secondary School and the Picton Education and Vocational Institute. Each team prepared a three-course meal with each student taking charge of one of the menu items, which included a spinach and mushroom bouche appetizer, a main course of stuffed and roasted pork tenderloin, numerous vegetable side dishes and for dessert, a pear frangipane tartlette.

The GREC students had ample opportunity to hone their skills and they practiced preparing their menu items on three separate occasions prior to the competition, once under the guidance of Loyalist College second year culinary management student Brennan Roy, who was also one of the judges at the competition. Roy made a special trip to GREC to assist the young chefs. “Brennan was great. He helped us get the information that we needed and also helped us improve by providing hands-on guidance and teaching us a number of useful skills, ” Kaitlyn Cadieux of the GREC team said earlier this week.

The four teams were given two hours to prepare the meal. Each team was judged on taste, presentation, overall kitchen skills as well as their cooperation as a team. GREC scored an overall 78%, which placed them in fourth place. The three other teams, who placed first, second and third, were invited to a second round of the competition on March 1 at Loyalist College's annual Food and Beverage Show. In the end it was St. Peters who took the first place prize.

Although the GREC team was eliminated in the first round, the students were pleased with their results and found the experience a rewarding one. Kaitlyn Cadieux, who prepared the appetizer portion of the meal for the GREC team, she spoke of the overall results of her team. “We were docked points for a few minor things like leaving the hand sanitizer on the counter during prep. Hilary's dessert won the most points awarded in the taste category for the dessert portion and the judges told us that of all of the schools who took part, we demonstrated the best cooperation and communication skills.”

Kaitlyn said the cooperation aspect likely resulted from the fact that she, Cadence, and Hilary had all worked together previously at the former Rising Bun Bakery in Sharbot Lake. That and the fact that Joelle Parr was a great addition to the team.

While Kaitlyn admitted that it was a bit of a disappointment not to win, she said that the experience was a fun and rewarding one. “I learned a lot about taking the lead in certain situations and how to collaborate with others.” Asked if she plans to pursue studies in the culinary arts, she said that that would be unlikely. “I don't think that I fit in that well to a kitchen environment and I don't think that I have the creativity as far as food goes that you need to have.” That being said she encourages students who may be interested in taking part in the competition to do so. “It was a very worthwhile experience and a really fun way to challenge yourself in a new and interesting way,” she said.