Olympic Trip Day 10

Today after the stress release of being done our competition, we got to go to the show to see some of the other competitions. We ate a three course hot lunch prepared by national teams, then looked at cold food displays, and chocolate, sugar, fondant, and bread sculptures. Some of the work was absolutely incredibly and mind-blowing. Then we had a nice three course team dinner together at a nice restaurant in town. 

pumpkin carving

vegetable plate

buffet platter

sculpture made entirely of bread dough

sugar sculpture

fondant model

Olympic Trip Day 9

Today was a very busy day. It began at midnight, where we were continuing our overnighter. At midnight we were still glazing our food items, then moving on to burning and plating them. We gently and securely packed up the vans with our plates and held the delicate garnishes on our laps; then departed our kitchen site at 3:45a.m. to travel the forty minutes on the highway to the competition site (our kitchen facilities were in a separate town and although this may sound impractical, it really is the best and most efficient way to get our food ready for the comp). We had the air conditioning on in the car to keep the food cold and to keep us awake, and carried on pointless conversations to stay alert. 

We arrived at the site and spent a long time in the line up of vans, trucks, and large buses to get to park near the loading zone, which is why we left so early. We finally got in and had two hours to set up our table. Luckily we had been permitted to set-up the display and menu cards and tablecloth the night before and had taken advantage of that opportunity, and all our food had already been plated, so it was just a matter of placing on last minute garnishes and placing the plates on the table. We had five people working on the table and three runners to bring stuff back and forth to the vans. 

At 7:00a.m. when the table displays had to be done we returned to clean up the kitchen then got a couple hours to nap before returning to the show to hear our critiques and see some of the show.

Olympic Trip Day 8

Tonight is our over-nighter day. We are going into the kitchen at 7:45a.m. and staying for a couple of hours or so or as long as we need to until our food is complete and ready to glaze. Then we will go back to the hotel to nap for a few hours, come back into the kitchen at 3:00p.m. and begin glazing all the food in a gelatin glaze (which preserves the food during display). Glazing all the food for 12 plates, 32 finger foods, 32 petit fours, a buffet platter, and a salad with three coats, plus the extra pieces (in order to ensure there is one PERFECT piece), plus burning the excess glaze off the food, then plating the food, takes approximately twelve hours. Then we have to oh so carefully transport the food from the kitchen to the next town to the event area and set up and have everything ready by 7:00a.m. It's a loooonng day (and night).

Please wish us luck!!!!

Olympic Trip Day 7

Today started out as incredibly frustrating and ended as incredibly exciting. In the morning it seemed as if NONE of my stuff today was working out, and half the stuff I did yesterday hadn't been successful and I was taking a long time to complete jobs that still weren't perfect, and I was in the weeds and waaayyy behind. I had to take extra time to redo several items. But by the end of the day, I got everything done just as I wanted it.

After work, we attended the opening ceremonies which was very exciting - seeing all the participating countries parade in and seeing the most people dressed in chef whites in one place I have ever seen before!!

little chef puff bean a teammate and I got for dancing
to the entry songs for each country like goons :)

Olympic Trip Day 6

Today was an extra long day - twelve hours in the kitchen with one five minute break. I spent the vast majority of the day cutting, peeling, shaping, choosing, blanching, charring, and storing vegetables, vegetables, and more vegetables. 

Olympic Trip Day 5

Today was a bit of a long and frustrating day for me. It was another day going hard at prep, and a few things didn't work out for me today. We prep all day. and after that there isn't time for much else except getting some food and a good night of rest.

At least there are adorable goats outside the kitchen that are always excited to see us...especially when we come bearing food scraps :)

Olympic Trip Day 4

First real day of prepping and what a long, frustrating day it was. We prepped from 9am - 6pm and getting used to the kitchen, where everything was stored, the different ingredients, and trying to adapt our recipes to fit what we had to work with proved to be a challenging start.

Vegetable Gratin

stunning pink dragonfruit

Olympic Trip Day 3

Today we drove into the next city to get a feel for where we would be shopping for food, attending opening and closing ceremonies, and displaying our food. Then we got to explore the city for a few hours - going into lots of bakeries, cafes, eiscafes, looking at old buildings, enjoying the beautiful and warm sunny day!

Olympic Trip Day 2

Today we went into the kitchen early to unpack all of our equipment and plates (and make sure none were broken), set-up stations, and receive all our food, put it away, and check lists five times to ensure we had everything. There was a lot of downtime before we get into the full swing of prepping things tomorrow, and we got to play fooseball on the table in the kitchen and see the dog and goats on the property. In the evening we went for supper at a local restaurant.

Salad with potato dumplings

Spinach and blue cheese dumplings

Delicious chocolate mousse cake

Olympic Trip Day 1

Today was a long day, arriving in the early morning after an overnight flight. Then a long drive to the hotel, then a long wait until our room was ready, then a refreshing nap and shower. Then exploring the small town by foot with teammates and going out for a pizza supper!

First flight - leaving home

Arriving & leaving airport

Our destination

The Culinary Olympics

Big announcement time! This news has become common knowledge to both my loved ones and people I don't know very well at all, but for those of you who don't know...I am going to the World Culinary Olympics Competition tomorrow! Way back at the beginning of the year I was chosen as a member of our regional culinary olympic team. We trained Monday - Friday; 7:00a.m. - 2:00p.m.; May 16th - October 7th. This is where I have been working all summer, with another job on top. It has been very stressful at times, and extremely busy, but tomorrow is the day we travel to the competition. I am so excited and nervous at the same time! I won't share too many details in regards to the actual competition today, but I hope I will get a chance to post some updates along the way!

Apple Crumble Muffins

Apple Crumble Muffins
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups non-dairy milk
3 Tablespoons oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-3 apples, finely chopped, peeled or not
leftover apple crumble topping, as desired

Preheat oven to 400°F; grease muffin tins.
Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Mix wet ingredients in a separate vessel.
Add wet to dry and mix well. Batter will be lumpy.
Mix in chopped apple.
Pour into muffin tins and top with crumble.
Bake at 400°F for 20 minutes.

Ice Cream Birthday Cake

This was an ice cream friend we devoured recently to celebrate my roommate's birthday. It was M&M chocolate-coated candy flavored. It was very good. It consisted of the typical vanilla soft serve, chocolate ice cream, chocolate fudge crunch, whipped cream icing, chocolate drizzle, and piping gel. Sometimes, there's just nothing like a good classic ice cream cake.

S'mores

S'mores was another action station at the golf club tournament. It consisted of marshmallow roasted on site in a smoker, warm milk chocolate sauce, warm caramel sauce, and graham cracker crumbs. Delicious and sweet! This was certainly a popular station.

Pork Belly & Mash

This was one of the action stations placed on the gold course event. It is easy to do to order and do in large quantities.

1. Brined, smoked, confit, seared pork belly
2. Creamy, buttery, mashed potatoes
3. Sweet apple cider gastrique

A piece of pork belly is brined overnight, double-smoked at a cool temperature for a long period of time, slowly cooked confit in fat, then seared until crispy. It is placed on a pile of creamy, smooth mashed potatoes and drizzle with an apple reduction sauce. 

Golf Club Tournament

A few weeks ago I helped out with catering at a golf event. It was a shotgun tournament (not that I really know what any of these gold terms mean) and there were food action stations set up at several of the holes. It was a beautiful day and quite relaxed, with several cooks on each station and customers coming up only every few minutes, quite slow.

Seafood Chef's Challenge Plates

Goat cheese parisienne gnocchi, lobster tail,
tomato sauce, chanterelle mushrooms, dill sprigs

Seafood (mussels, quahogs, oysters) kibbeh,
fresh fennel, orange, pickled onion, and dill salad,
flavored cream sauce, gastrique

Avocado puree, fresh oysters, carrot curls, cucumber
curls, pickled rasdish, sauteed spinach, panko
crumb, fried rice noodle, chives

Lobster claw, fresh peas, chanterelles,
 sauce accompaniments

Seafood perogi, pickled red onion,
cucumber, fennel, dill, green puree, sauce

Mussels atop a vegetable gateau

Seafood Chef's Challenge

I had the privilege of volunteering as a runner at a local seafood competition. There were twelve chefs in total competing for a grand prize of ten thousand dollars. The first day the twelve competitors were narrowed down to six. The second day the six competitors were narrowed down to two. And the third day the two competitors battled it out on the grand stage for the grand prize. The competition took place in a temporary tent set-up and the competitors were from around the world. The set-up consisted of only two small work tables for each competitors in front of a crowd, and the runners (me included) had to do all the set up of equipment, organization of ingredients, and run dishes back and forth from the stage to the small kitchen trailer. The competitors had use of brand new equipment, including state-of-the-art blenders, food processors, stand mixers, and immersion blenders; in addition to pots, pans, utensils, and induction burners. They had access to a wide range of parstock ingredients, as well as mandatory seafood, including the following:

Produce: shallots, red onions, fingerling potatoes, baby potatoes, chanterelles, leeks, green onions, ucumbers, broccoli, bok choy, tomaotes, bell peppers, celery, carrots, button mushrooms, oranges, lemons, limes, avocados, fennel, assorted fresh herbs

Dairy: milk, cream, butter, eggs, goat cheese, mozzarella cheese

Alcohol: red wine, white wine, brandy, vermouth

Dry Ingredients: assorted spices, sugar, brown sugar, flour, cornsttarch, rice noodles, white rice, wild rice, arborio rice, vinegars

Seafood: mussels, oysters, whole lobsters, quahogs, crab meat

I will share some photos of the competition plates tomorrow.

The Biggest Lobster I've Ever Seen

Yes, it is difficult to tell how large this lobster is from the picture, but compared to any other cooked lobsters I have seen....this was a giant! It was for a special function I helped at where each guests got a whole cooked lobster each. They were not all this big; this one was for the guest celebrity chef of course.

Baby Baked Potatoes

I'm afraid I didn't snap a photo of these hors d'oevures either, but I did make them. It began with 400 baby red potatoes washed, halved and hollowed out with a melon baller.A small sliver from the bottom of the potato was also sliced off so the potato could sit without rolling around. Drizzled with oil, salt, and pepper and roasted on racks in the oven. Cooled and stuffed with rendered diced double smoked house bacon and shredded smoked gouda cheese. Then baked until the cheese was melted and potatoes were crisp.

The spare potato scraps can be saved and turned into round hashbrowns or mashed potatoes and the excess peels can be transformed into potato skins.

Rye Crustinis

Rye Crustinis
rye baguettes, frozen
canola oil
fine salt
ground black pepper

Slice the baguettes with a serrated knife while still partially frozen as thinly as possible. You can also do this on a meat slicer or a mandolin. For small crusinis, cut straight across the baguette. For larger crustinis, slice on a diagonal.

Lay crustinis in a single layer on a baking sheet. Mist with oil, and sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper. Gently place a few baking sheets on top to weigh down the crustinis and prevent them from blowing away in the oven. Bake at 200◦F until crisp.

The recipe works with any type of thinly sliced bread.

Sweet Apple Chutney

Sweet Apple Chutney
2 liters red onion, diced
1.5 liters apple cider vinegar
1/2 liter raspberry vinegar
1/2 liter apple juice
1/2 liter molasses
1 liter maple syrup
1/2 liter packed brown sugar
4 star anise
6 whole allspice berries
1 Tablespoon whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
3 liters green apples, diced

Place all ingredients except the apples in a large pot and bring to a boil. Simmer strongly for a few hours until onions are tender and liquid is reduced and thickened. Stir in the apples then remove from heat. Cool and serve!

Smoked Pork Crustini

Homemade rye bread
Toasted into crustinis
House brined, smoked, and sliced pork tenderloin
Sweet apple chutney
Flower garnishes

One great, well-balance canape!

Citrus Crema

Citrus Crema
1 kg sour cream, strained of excess liquid if necessary
juice and zest of 4 oranges
juice and zest of 6 lemons
juice and zest of 6 limes
1 bunch chives, finely cut

Fold all ingredients together - season to taste with some salt if necessary. This crema is a good consistency to smear, pipe, or spread.
Pairs well with salty, fatty items such as fish cakes.