Andrea the Gastronaut's other home

Domain name has been successfully transferred but nothing’s working.

Stay tuned.

The 2012 S. Pellegrino® Almost Famous Chef Canada Regional Competition takes place at Calphalon Culinary Center in Toronto this Monday, January 30. Top culinary students will compete for a chance to become the next star of the gastronomic world.

Eight students from four participating culinary schools across Canada will be given just two hours to create their unique signature dish. A panel of judges critiques them on every meticulous detail from taste, texture and aroma of the dish, to presentation. The assembled judging panel, local media, chefs and invited guests, like you, will have the opportunity to sample all of these dishes during the tasting reception. The winner will go on to compete at the 10th annual Finals Competition in Napa Valley in March, with competitors from 73 schools across North America.

This year’s judges:

• Chef Jonas, Lee Restaurant, Toronto
• Annabelle Waugh, Food Director, Canadian Living Magazine
• Emily Richards, Food Columnist, Metro Newspapers
• Alexa Clark of Cheap Eats Toronto and Unsweetened.ca
  

The following culinary students were selected from the top of their class to participate in the Canada Regional Competition:

• Cole Nicholson and Deaille (Yee Man) Tam from The George Brown Chefs School (Toronto)
• Hans Berg from The International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Vancouver
• Charles Gignac and Anne-Marie Plourde from École hôtelière de la Capitale (Québec City)
• Daniela Molettieri from Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec (Montréal)

Competitors were selected on criteria including grade point average, the requirement to be at least a second-year student in a culinary degree or certificate program and the requirement of a a minimum of two and maximum of four years of industry experience.

Competitors will be evaluated on creativity; plate appearance, taste, texture, and aroma; and sanitation at their work station; as well as on their personality while being questioned by judges and media, and on their ability to perform under pressure.

Want to follow the action?

Become a fan of the competition on Facebook.
Follow along on Twitter.

After the competition I’ll be posting an interview with one of the competitors. I’ll also be giving away a sweet prize. I expect my blog to be back home by then, as Easy DNS told me 1-3 days earlier today. Stay tuned for all of that!

Eat well, be well.

The Depanneur/Rusholme Park Supper Club for their Dinner in Black and White.

All guests must wear black and white.

The menu:

“Black olives. Black onion seed. Black radish. Black beans. Black garlic. Black pasta. Black pepper. Black trumpet mushrooms. Black sesame ice cream. Black cookies.

White cheeses. White beans. White pasta. Alfredo sauce. White truffle. Vanilla ice cream. White chocolate ganache.”

More specifically (as posted on Facebook):

• Black and White seeded flatbreads
• Feta with blackseed, olives with black radish
• White and Black bean soup, with fresh cheese & black garlic
• Black pasta with White sauce (squid-ink fettuccini with white-truffle Alfredo sauce & pepper)
• White pasta with Black sauce (long linguini with black trumpet mushrooms & percorino)
• Black and White ice creams (black sesame & vanilla) with white & black sesame seeds
• Homemade “Oreos” with white chocolate ganache infused with espresso & cacao nibs

BYO wine. I bought a white wine for the occasion, an Australian Savignon Blanc Semillion blend that I’ve never tried. I considered a white port.

There won’t, to my knowledge, be black and white cookies.

I’ll send some tweets from the dinner and do a full write up when my website is back up.

Sign up for the Rusholme Park Supper Club newsletter from The Depanneur’s website to learn what other dinners are coming up. Dinners cost $40.