Canadian Culinary Championships pt.3 - Gold Medal Plates Finale

Canadian Culinary Championships - Gold Medal Plates Finale pt.3
This part 3 of a 3 part series,

read the part 1 here--->

Black Box Competition


The chefs participated in the "Black Box" Competition, whereby they were given five mystery ingredients, had 10 minutes to decide what to prepare with them, and then 60 minutes to prepare the meal for judging. Inside each black box were artic char, large quails, aborio rice, fresh fennel, dragon fruit and a local pale ale. As chefs quickly prepared their dishes in front of the judges and the cross-Canada crowd of culinary enthusiasts, it became clear that emotions and the competition were firing up with the ticking of the clock. Intense and exciting, each chef delivered his outstanding presentation to the sound of rapturous applause.

The black box competition allowed the chef and an assistant to showcase their ability to quickly assess their ingredients and come out with a dish that utilizes all the secret ingredients. In the first year of Gold Medal Plates Finals in 2007, four of the seven chefs failed to use all five ingredients in the box, for which the were docked ten marks out of 100. Chef's were also docked marks it they were plating after time was called. This year, all the chefs were able to utilize the ingredients and I believe only one or two went over the allocated time. Coincidentally, in the first Golden Medal Plate, Chef Makoto Ono was the only chef that fully adhered to the rules that year. In the crowd were last years winner and runner-up, Chef Hayato Okamitsu, Frank Pabst. Also in attendance was Chef Bruno Marti, with over a decade of experience representing Canada at the Culinary Olympics.