Judging the Almost Famous

January 23, 2012March 23, 2017 Alexa Clark 0 Comments #AFChef, Almost Famous Chef Competition, S. Pellegrino, San Pellegrino

I am delighted to announce that I’ve been invited to be a Judge at the San Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition.
This is the 10th anniversary of the S.Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef C ompetition and it brings together students from 73 culinary institutions across Canada and the United States to compete to be named the San Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef, up to $22,000 in prizes and a career-changing apprenticeship with a master chef.

There are 10 regional competitions and I will be judging the Canadian Regionals held on January 30th at the Calphalon Culinary Center in Toronto with:

Chef Jonas, Lee Restaurant, Toronto
Annabelle Waugh, Food Director, Canadian Living Magazine
Emily Richards, Food Columnist, Metro Newspapers

The competing Canadian schools are: The George Brown Chef’s School (Toronto), The International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Vancouver, École hôtelière de la Capitale (Québec City), Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec (Montréal).

Each competing student will be given two hours to prepare eight servings of an entrée signature dish, seven for judges and one for display. They will then present their dish to the judging panel. There will be a judging panel at each regional competition featuring chef judges, kitchen judges and media judges.

We’ll be evaluating each competitor on kitchen skills; the taste, presentation and creativity of their dish; as well as on their personality while being questioned by judges and media, and on their ability to perform under pressure.

Regional winners will then go to Napa California in March to compete in a variety of competitions including: the Mystery Basket Competition, the Signature Dish Competition, the People’s Choice Award, and the Acqua Panna^® Fan Favorite.

Last year’s winner of the Canadian Regionals was Jean-Francois Daigle from George Brown Chef’s School for his Honey-Seared Bison Tenderloin. An extra cool part for me is that he’s from New Brunswick and this dish was inspired by watching the bison grazing on wildflowers at a farm in Northern New Brunswick. Here’s a shot of Jean-Francois after his win last year, with Jess Bennett of Sift, Dust & Toss, David Ort (last year’s Blogger Judge) of Food With Legs and Spotlight Toronto, and me.