Departments
|
Week of 23 April 1999 |
Vol. II, No. 32 |
Feature
Article
When the palate is the ballot
Students put to the taste test in first SHA Culinary Olympics
|
|
|
Vivian Chang (MET'99) (center) and Florence Lin (MET'99) watch the facial expression of Professor Noel Cullen, judge of the first School of Hospitality Administration Culinary Olympics and a certified master chef, as he samples their fare. Photo by Vernon Doucette |
Rather than with a torch, these Olympics were inaugurated with the lighting of six-burner stoves.
On April 16, five teams of undergraduate chefs from the MET School of Hospitality Administration gathered in the Foods Laboratory at 808 Commonwealth Ave. to go for the gourmet gold. The first SHA Culinary Olympics, cooked up by MET Associate Professor Noel Cullen and student Amanda Wolfe (MET'00), challenged its participants to prepare the best two-course meal from a prescribed list of ingredients.
"It's a fun competition among the students," says Cullen, who is president of the American Culinary Federation and one of only 51 certified master chefs in the United States. "The cooking classes are coming to an end now, and this is a way for the students to be creative, have some fun, and use some of the skills they've acquired."
The three-person teams were given from 9 a.m. to noon to create a meal for four consisting of an entrée and one complementary course -- a salad, soup, an appetizer, or a dessert. Despite the time and resource constraints, the bills of fare varied greatly and bespoke real invention. The winning team served a grilled rack of lamb with mustard spaetzel, glazed carrots, and rosemary reduction. The first runners-up made a Mediterranean stuffed chicken. One team prepared three courses, including an elaborate lemon ice dessert. Another dipped balloons in chocolate, refrigerated them, then deflated and removed the balloons and sculpted the chocolate hemispheres into elegant bowls, in which a chocolate mousse was served. Each competitor was permitted one guest, and by noon the Foods Lab was full of people happily sampling the entries.
The contest was judged by Cullen and four SHA teaching assistants, all of whom have previous experience as professional chefs. They evaluated the teams based on a list of criteria ranging from creativity and use of the products to hygiene and safety. Prize packages included gourmet cookbooks, soft-sided attaché cases by Knorr Culinary, and gift certificates to Brasserie Joe's and Williams-Sonoma. The first-place winners received Principles and Processes of Cooking, a two-volume set of instructional videocassettes produced at BU, which features Cullen and four other master chefs.
"I've got to say I was amazed at some of the creative ideas you came up with. Great marks to you all," Cullen said before conferring the awards. He noted that only one point separated each of the five teams in the judges' scoring. "All of the food that was prepared here could be served in any first-class restaurant, without question," he said. "People would pay you money for it."
A trio of precocious sophomores, Eli Feldman, Austin Ray, and Roger Wong, took top honors in the competition, despite having come together as a team only shortly before it got under way. Because of an oversight, one team had ended up with four members, and Feldman and Wong were one teammate short. Ray corrected the imbalance by volunteering to switch teams.
"I guess it was the right group to get into," he says with a laugh. "Eli had a great plan, and it was well executed."
Opportunities to improvise and think on one's feet, Ray says, contribute to the appeal cooking holds for him. He thrives on the sort of spontaneity the Culinary Olympics demanded.
"I looked at it as a challenge," he says. "I ended up taking some initiative with a few of the garnishing and presentation ideas. Things don't always come together the way you envision them, and that's what's fun about it, I think. There's some uncertainty there that's fun to play with."
The contest was open to all SHA students on a first-come, first-served basis. Practically speaking, Cullen says, the number of teams had to be limited to five, which forced several prospective competitors to sit out.
Cooking is only a small part of the SHA curriculum, which is designed to prepare students for careers in hotel and food service management. The degree requires eight course credits in food and beverage management, which must include two of the four food laboratory modules Cullen teaches -- seafood cookery, contemporary nutrition cooking, classical international cuisine, and "the most popular of all, pastries and desserts."
"The cooking is a way for students to understand the cost and production elements associated with running a successful restaurant," Cullen says, adding that it has the ancillary benefit of being "the only program at Boston University in which students get to eat the curriculum."
For more information about the School of Hospitality Administration, visit www.bu.edu/sha/.