After many years, the format of the Culinary Olympics is changing. To promote transparency, to encourage additional public participation and to eliminate the food waste associated with the cold displays, starting in February of next year the national and junior national teams will no longer be requested to present their traditional cold tables. Instead, the juniors will be presenting an edible buffet and the national teams will be preparing their “Chefs Tables” in front of and for the judges and the public.
Although regional teams will still be required to present traditional cold tables and individual competitors will continue to show their cold culinary artistry, clearly the writing is on the wall and it seems that it is only a matter of time until cold competition, as it has been traditionally known, will be eliminated altogether.
For the past few years a new category has been introduced with ever increasing interest and popularity. To date, the community catering competition has been attended by primarily European corporate catering teams but the event has expanded to include national, regional and military teams from around the globe.
Late last fall, Team BC Managers John Carlo Felicella and James Hutton travelled to the city of Reutlingen near Stuttgart to secure hotel accommodations and kitchen space and to briefly attend the Expogast competition in Luxembourg. The opportunity to observe and photograph the regional cold tables and individual entries for their team gave them insight as to what to expect next year in Stuttgart. They also made visiting the community catering competition site a priority and had the opportunity to spec out the kitchens, converse with the judges, eat two of the competitors meals and generally develop a clearer understanding of the competition.
Upon their return from their journey they determined that Culinary Team British Columbia would not only participate in the regional cold table competition but for the first time a British Columbian team would enter the community catering contest. They have since registered for the competition and paid the mandatory entry fees.
In mid January, John Carlo travelled to Toronto for a day long seminar on the community catering competition hosted by Judge Simon Smotkowicz and the Canadian Culinary Federation. He returned with further insight and the knowledge needed for competitive success. Team BC and a Team from the Northern Alberta Institute will be the first Canadian teams participating in the event
The Community Catering Competition:
Each team will consist of four chef members and two assistants who will be required to develop, cook and serve a menu for 120 persons. The menu should not exceed a food cost of 5 Euros per person and recipes, costing and nutritional breakdown must be provided at the commencement of the competition.
After five hours of from scratch preparation and cooking time the team must present their menu for their guests to choose in a self-serve / cafeteria fashion. A hot line and a cold table are provided and all guest selections must fit on a standard sized cafeteria style tray. One of the main course dishes must be cooked or completed and presented in front of the guest.
The menu must consist of the following
1 salad.
2 varieties of finger foods one of which must be vegetarian.
2 main course meats or 1 meat and 1 fish dish main course selections.
1 vegetarian main course.
2 starch side dishes.
2 vegetable side dishes.
1 dessert.
For further details and additional information:
https://www.worldchefs.org/world-news/8cb24c40edce328b3c9bb94eae3dfe2ebdc03510
https://www.olympiade-der-koeche.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/IKA2020_Community_Catering_Teams.pdf
One on One Practice Sessions Begin:
In mid January Team Member Kurt Waddington journeyed from Kelowna to Vancouver for a one on one practice session with Team BC Coach Poyan Danesh in preparation for the regional cold table competition at the 2020 IKA World Culinary Olympics. After three days of focused discussion, seemingly endless experimentation, decision making, preparation and presentation an exhausted but very grateful Kurt proudly presented his three appetizer plates to Team Manager J.C. Felicella, Adviser, Bruno Marti and Assistant Managers Jane Ruddick and James Hutton.
Ask chefs what they think and…..they will tell you…and they did, but all were impressed and in agreement that inroads had been made since the last practice. With some minor suggestions for improvements by the panel, Kurt packed up and readied himself for the trip home with a great new foundation, inovative techniques, a renewed enthusiasm a promise to continue practicing and perfecting his entries.
Kurt and the team management are extremely thankful to Poyan for sharing his skills, his knowledge, his experiences and especially his valuable time. A team is only as good as those who are willing to support and encourage it’s members.
As the upcoming year progresses, the plan is to provide each of the team members similar opportunities for additional training and coaching in preparing for the IKA Culinary Olympics.
