Canadian regional San Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition

For the past nine years, the Canadian regional S.Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition has honoured the best in up-and-coming culinary talent. The cooking competition brings together students from more than 35 culinary institutions across the United States and Canada. During the competition they battle for a chance to compete and be judged by nationally renowned chefs at the finals competition in Napa this March.


Competitors are judged 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.


For 2011, the culinary students selected from the top of their class to participate in the Canada Regional Competition are:

• The George Brown Chef’s School: Wendy Mah and Jean-François Daigle
• The International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Vancouver: Christine Amanatidis and Winston Lin
• École hôtelière de la Capitale (Québec City): Alexandre Raymond and Francis Traversy
• Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec (Montréal): Nathalie Des Rosiers and Emile Balk

The competition will be judged by:

• Chef Jeff Dell, Executive Chef for Milestones Restaurant in Toronto
• Chef Laurent Godbout, Chef Owner of L’Épicier in Montréal
• Chef Chris Mills, Executive Chef for Joey's Restaurants in Vancouver
• James Chatto, Senior Editor, Food and Drink Magazine

Additionally, the fine folks at San Pellegrino are conducting a blogger contest to become a judge for this prestigious Almost Famous Chef Competition. In order to enter this contest, I am writing this blog post with my rationale for why I would be a good judge in this competition. 

I've been writing Sift, Dust & Toss for two years. I started blogging to learn more about social media and explore my interest in food and nutrition. I never expected that I would learn as much as I have, nor that I would have received so much fulfillment or met so many fantastic people. I've also developed a small, but loyal readership. While I would certainly bring a more amateur palate to the judging table than James Chatto or Chris Mills might, I've developed good culinary instincts and I seek balance above all else in the food I taste. A quality chef's work should transcend cost of flashy ingredients or the sparkle of perfect technique. Above all else, a dish must taste good and exhibit the proper balance between sweet, savoury, sour, pungent and spicy. This is what I would be looking from competitors' dishes: I'd be tasting for the masses. 


Follow the Canadian regional S.Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition on Twitter at AFChefComp or on the Facebook page.