Like Family
Young cooks take teamwork to the next level to win the 2011 Student Team National Championship.
By Christopher Allen Tanner, CEC, WCC, CHE
The National Culinary Review | September 2011
78
EVERY year, teams of five students,
along with their coaches, prepare at the
state level to compete for the coveted
Student Team National Championship.
Winning teams then move on to the
regional conferences, where they again
prepare four courses and four portions, but
now also prepare a cold-food buffet platter,
truly a daunting task for even the most
seasoned professional. Finally, the four
top teams in the country are awarded the
opportunity to compete for the national title.
to see what these young chefs are cooking
and how. Students are the future, and they
can usually show professionals a thing or
two about modern trends and techniques
in the kitchen. This year we saw sous vide
become commonplace, along with foams,
spherification and other techniques. These
teams, however, did not emphasize just
modern techniques. A good foundation of
classical technique got them to this level, and
that was evident in all the dishes prepared.
Central Region—gold medal; ACF Bay Area
Chefs Association, students from Oregon
Coast Culinary Institute, Coos Bay, Ore.,
representing the Western Region—silver
medal; Mid-Hudson Culinary Association,
students from The Culinary Institute of
America, Hyde Park, N. Y., representing
the Northeast Region—silver medal; and
ACF Western North Carolina Culinary
Association, students from Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College,
Asheville, N.C.—silver medal.
This competition is one of the most
anticipated by many in our federation. Industry
experts from all over the country are looking
The four 2011 finalist teams and medals
earned during the competition were: ACF
Louis Joliet Chapter, students from Joliet
Junior College, Joliet, Ill., representing the
“The teams did an excellent job,” said lead
judge Thomas Recinella, CEC, AAC. “The
Asheville team [from the Southeast Region]
