Chef Jaco

Student chefs face off to secure spot on U of T's Iron Chef team

geoff.vendeville — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 21:30:32 +0000

Student chefs face off to secure spot on U of T's Iron Chef team

geoff.vendeville Wed, 01/25/2017 - 16:30

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Felipe Branco (left) and Jordan Su were among the four students chosen to represent U of T at the Iron Chef competition in February (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

Geoffrey Vendeville

Author legacy

Geoffrey Vendeville

Topic

City & Culture

Chef Jaco

Chef Jaco Lokker

Food Services

Iron Chef

Subheadline

They will face McGill, OttawaU, Yale and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in an inter-university culinary showdown hosted by U of T in February

Four student chefs have been chosen to bring the University of Toronto glory next month when the university hosts the annual Iron Chef challenge.

Brettany Colette, Felipe Branco, Jordan Su and Ailin Xi made the cut after a culinary duel in the New College cafeteria kitchen on Tuesday evening.

After receiving dozens of applications to represent U of T at the competition, U of T chefs Jaco Lokker and James Piggott invited 12 students to demonstrate their skills in a faceoff. The students were split into teams of three and given two hours, a whole chicken and the run of the New College kitchen to prepare a dish that would leave the judges licking their lips.

Here’s how the night went down:

5:30 p.m.

Piggott, the executive chef residential dining at New College, greeted the students in the cafeteria and made it clear that as hosts of this year’s contest, the stakes are especially high.

“We are hopefully going to have eight or nine competitors,” he said, “and we’re going to crush them. This is our home. This is our turf. We don’t lose at home."

6:00 p.m.

The students were separated into teams and took their places at counters in the kitchen.

Lokker, U of T's director of culinary operations and executive chef, introduced himself to the finalists.

He has coached the U of T team in each of the last three years at Iron Chef but stepped aside this time to host the event.

Piggott takes over as head coach although Lokker will help prepare the student chefs for the big event.

Read about Chef Jaco Lokker in Maclean's

Chef Jaco Lokker meets the students gunning for a place in the U of T Iron Chef squad (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

Before the students at the trial could make a dash for ingredients, Piggott went over the ground rules:

“No swearing. This is not Hell’s Kitchen,” he said.

The contenders were allowed one f-bomb if they cut themselves – and even then, “It better be worth stitches,” he said.

At just after six, it was go time.

6:30 p.m.

The teams wasted no time planning their dishes: a classic coconut curry with blend of fresh herbs and fresh chicken stock; roasted chicken with butter and thyme accompanied by green pea puree with thyme, garlic herb oil and lemon juice; fried chicken on french toast with applesauce and whipped cream; and chicken stuffed with cheese and pine nuts on handmade fettuccine.

Branco, a first-year M.B.A. student at U of T’s Rotman School of Management, was in charge of carving the chicken for the curry.

He said he had some experience in that area after interning at a restaurant in Panzano, near Florence, Italy, where he learned how to make “old school” Italian dishes like bistecca fiorentina and Francesina stew (beef shank cooked in red wine, onions and tomato sauce).

Felipe Branco, an M.B.A. student at Rotman, prepares a chicken for a curry while his team partner Brettany Colette looks on (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

7:00 p.m.

“55 minutes teams, 55 minutes! Feel the pressure, feel the burn,” Piggott said.

As students picked up the pace to finish in time, the chefs strolled up and down the aisles appraising their skills.

They were evaluating whether students could hold a knife properly, cooking terminology the students were using and whether they stuck to simple ingredients or took risks.

Ailin Xi, a biochemistry and nutrional sciences student, is splattered with green pea and pepper puree during the Iron Chef competition trial (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

The judges also considered how well the students gelled together.

“You’re always going to have people who stand out more as leaders,” Lokker told U of T News. “And you don’t need three of those on the same team. That’s a huge problem.”

7:30 p.m.

By this point, some teams were getting ready to plate their dishes while others had yet to put their food in the oven.

With 15 minutes to go, the chefs left the kitchen to give the teams some breathing room.

Branco, Su and their teammate Colette prepared to lay out the chicken curry, thinking carefully about the position of each element of their plate and what one student called the “sauce-to-rice ratio.”

They chose only the prettiest pieces of chicken for the dish and garnished them with tweezers.

Another team raised fried chicken on french toast to a new level of elegance.

U of T students vying for spots on the university's Iron Chef team put the finishing touches on fried chicken, french toast, applesauce and whipped cream (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

8:00 p.m.

One by one, the teams brought their creations out to the cafeteria where chefs Lokker and Piggott were waiting.

“Honestly this is really good gnocchi, and I’m not a fan of gnocchi,” said Piggott, tasting the roast chicken, green pea puree, gnocchi combo.

Lokker seemed impressed with another team's fettucini made from scratch.

“This is exactly the way fresh pasta should taste,” he told them.

The chefs conferred while the students cleaned up their stations. “It’s getting harder now,” Lokker said to his colleague as they deliberated.

Stuffed chicken with fettuccine. The chefs behind this dish didn't make the cut for the U of T Iron Chef team this year (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

Just after 8 p.m.

A few minutes after sampling the last dish, the chefs called the students back out to the New College cafeteria dining room.

When Piggott announced the winners – the makers of the coconut curry – Colette sprung up from her chair and high-fived her teammates.

The students who were chosen to be part of U of T's Iron Chef team celebrated after the announcement was made (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

With the air of an athlete who had just progressed to the playoffs, Su, the human geography student, said he was happy to have made it this far but refrained from gloating.

“My main purpose here was just to have fun,” he said.

The students who hadn’t made the roster smiled and applauded.

“It was so much fun. They provided us the whole kitchen, which was amazing,” said Burce Isik, who studies genetics, biotechnology, and molecular biology. “I’m in fourth year. If I’d known about this before, I would’ve applied in my second year, third year.”

Three of the four winning students will compete at the Iron Chef cook-off the weekend of Feb. 25th. The fourth student is an understudy but guaranteed a spot on next year’s team. The backup will be decided at the team’s first practice session with their coach, Piggott.

Burce Isik who studies genetics, biotechnology, and molecular biology, makes gnocchi (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

#UofTBTS16: Dig into this year's delish food choices

ullahnor — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 16:32:24 +0000

#UofTBTS16: Dig into this year's delish food choices

ullahnor Tue, 09/06/2016 - 12:32

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Behind the scenes at Sambal, U of T's new Asian fusion eatery

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

There’s nothing like a scrumptious meal to ease those back-to-school butterflies.

That’s why we’ve rounded up U of T’s top foodies to share their favourite campus bites, neighbourhood eateries and guilty pleasures.

Chef Jaco Lokker, U of T’s director of culinary operations, can’t wait to introduce students to this year’s new food options, including his current fave Sambal.

The Asian fusion eatery, which just opened in the Medical Sciences Building, will also open next week at Sidney Smith Hall. It features mouthwatering dishes like the Southern BBQ Pork Banh Mi sandwich and hand-cut fries with your choice of sauce – peanut sauce, curry ketchup, wasabi mayo or tandoori mayo.

U of T's executive chef says there’s something for everyone on the St. George campus.

“There are multiple price points so that if folks are on a budget, there’s still opportunity for them to eat well,” Lokker says.

Watch the CP24 Breakfast team at U of T, talking about campus food

At U of T Mississauga, registered dietitian Kimberly Green offers some healthy and tasty food recommendations.

“My favourite place to eat on campus is actually Colman Commons at Oscar Peterson Hall. A lot of students think it's just for those who live in residence, but there is so much variety, something for everyone,” she says. “There is a salad bar, veggie options, comfort food, anything you want.”

For more tips on healthy eating, UTM students can book an appointment with Green for free.

If you head east to Scarborough, you'll find great local options close to the UTSC campus.

In fact, U of T President Meric Gertler's favourite restaurants are in Scarborough: Kub Khao Thai Eatery and Shawarma Empire.

Chemistry professor Bernie Kraatz is mad about Canbe Foods.

“It’s one of my favourite take-outs,” he says. “And the Egg Roti is fantastic. A meal for a little over $2? You cannot beat that!”

For adventurous foodies, take a culinary tour of Scarborough using “Scarborough, A Little Taste” – a website and mobile app developed by the UTSC Culinaria Research Centre where you can find everything from Caribbean to Vietnamese cuisine.

UTSC student Katie Konstantopoulos is a content developer for SALT.

For the perfect on-campus curry, she heads to Bhoj in the Marketplace.

“One of your best bang-for-your-buck options at UTSC in terms of flavour and quality,” says Konstantopoulos.

In a hurry? There’s always Nasir the hot dog guy.

“(He's a) UTSC legend and stand-up guy. He makes his home outside the student centre and will brave the coldest days of winter with a smile, a riddle, and a heater as you wait for your lunch,” says Konstantopoulos.

Though a healthy diet is important, we all have our guilty pleasures. For Green, it’s the butter chicken tandoori. Macdonald goes for the pizza in the Medical Sciences Building.

“Oh the tomato sauce is fantastic. It has this lovely crispy, thin crust,” she says.

Chef Lokker, on the other hand, likes to satisfy his sweet tooth.

“Chocolate. Good chocolate though like Lindt,” he says.

Chef Jaco

Student chefs face off to secure spot on U of T's Iron Chef team

5:30 p.m.

Read more about Chef James Piggott

6:00 p.m.

Read about Chef Jaco Lokker in Maclean's

6:30 p.m.

7:00 p.m.

7:30 p.m.

8:00 p.m.

Just after 8 p.m.

Read more about the competition

#UofTBTS16: Dig into this year's delish food choices

Read more about Chef Jaco Lokker

Read more about the new food choices on the St. George campus

Watch the CP24 Breakfast team at U of T, talking about campus food