With only one oven, six burners, two tables and basic grocery supplies, a team of four Nicholls culinary students and an alternate defeated Delgado culinary students and won the title of the state champions in the American culinary Federation junior division hot food competition.
The students chosen to represent the John Folse Culinary Institution were Matt Bolettte, senior from New Orleans; Ben Doolittle, junior from Mandeville; Michael Anthony, junior from Thibodaux; Chad Rogers, sophomore from Belle Chase and Yorick Vermeulen, senior from River Ridge.
“Before the culinary students go to competition I tell them to be prepared for one of two things: to either win or lose. If you are not prepared for either, then shame on you,” Randy Cheramie, Chef John Folse Culinary Institute lecturer, said.
The competition was broken into two parts. The first part of the competition involved knife skills and the other part was the hot food skills.
The knife skills competition involved cutting five fine cuts of meat to a certain amount of weight within an hour. This competition was judged on uniformity and precision.
The hot food part of the competition consisted of preparing a four-course meal with four plates for each judge within an hour and fifteen minutes. To enter the competition the Chef John Folse Culinary Institution had to provide a manual that told background information about the institution, recipes that would be used to create the menu, photos of the dishes and a nutritional analysis. The judges used the manual as a guide in judging the food.
The panel of judges for the competition consisted of renowned people of the food industry such as Bob Reshore, who is the executive corporate chef at the Provinin Veil, and Lenny Minuttio with the Louisiana Sea Food Exchange.
“In anticipation of the competition I was nervous, the biggest thing on my mind was not to forget anything. Once the competition started all of the concerns over losing or winning flew out the door. The competition goes by so fast you just have to focus on the task at hand,” Bolettte said.
During the competition a lead judge walked around the floor to verify that the culinary students were using proper cooking and knife techniques, had a sanitary cooking environment and were generally organized.
The menu the students prepared consisted of a Louisiana chicken “gumbo” consomm, which was prepared by Anthony, and as a salad, a lemon fish capriccio with associated greens, lemon vinaigrette and fried capers prepared by Rogers. As an entre, Bolette served seared duck breast with roasted thigh meat with a duck stock and port wine reduction and foiegras corn bread croquette with bruised red cabbage. The dessert prepared by Doolittle, consisted of an apple art with anise ice cream and bruondydied Florentine. As an alternate, Yorick could not cook but acted as a coach to the team of culinary students and reminded them of their time limit.
Cheramie said the challenge of the competition is whether or not the students can concentrate on many things while working alongside three people within the context of an hour and fifteen minutes.
Students in the John Folse Culinary Institute who wanted to take part in the American Culinary Federation junior hot food state competition had to audition during the fall semester. The students were required to prepare an entre dish in 45 minutes and were judged by three faculty members under AFC standards.
To prepare for the competition, the students met with Cheramie to discuss recipes. Cheramie said he could only guide the students, but sometimes gives suggestions rather strongly.
The students practiced endlessly for the big day. Both Cheramie and Bolette agreed that the week before competition day was rather hectic trying to get everything done. Cheramie even admitted that for a while he was worried about the outcome of the entre due to previous practice sessions.
“Perhaps the best part of the competition was whenever the floor judge tasted the entre and said ‘wow!’ Right then and there I knew we had won,” Cheramie said.
The culinary students were declared the winner of the competition and received a silver medal for the overall rank of their performance. Although the culinary students did not win a formal prize they did receive the bragging rights of being named state champions.
According to Randy Cheramie, the culinary students from the John Folse Culinary Institute have won the competition against Delgado four consecutive years in a row.
The next step for the culinary students will be to compete on April 24 in the ACF Sanctional in Houston for the title of central region champions. Cheramie said the Chef John Folse Culinary students will face many tough competitors but will keep the same menu. However Bolette said in order to give another good performance the culinary team will have to practice, practice and practice.
Bolette said, “This was definitely a rewarding experience in the fact that it gave me a chance to be a part of something bigger than myself. Perhaps the biggest reward was having my mom present whenever the floor judge said ‘wow’ to the entre I prepared. Having her there to hear praise over something I cooked after all the sacrifices my family has made to send me to school had to be most rewarding.”