Edmonton’s Ryan O’Flynn cooked his way to the top of the podium Saturday night at the Gold Medal Plates Canadian Culinary Championships in Kelowna, impressing the judges with a terrine of pine-smoked Alberta river sturgeon, cured foie gras, and morel mushrooms.
“I did everything I wanted to do, I hit everything I wanted to hit,” said a visibly emotional O’Flynn moments after the win. “I’m so happy to do it for the city of Edmonton, the city of champions!”
O’Flynn is the first Edmonton chef to take home the gold in the 10-year history of the event.
O’Flynn beat out an especially talent crop of Canada’s top chefs, a field head judge James Chatto said was by far the most talented ever assembled for the annual competition.
“I can say that without hesitation,” he told the crowd Saturday night.
Vancouver favourite Kristian Eligh of Hawksworth Restaurant placed third at the competition. Despite coming away with a bronze medal, the competitive Eligh said he couldn’t help but feel somewhat disappointed with the result.
“I wanted to do better,” he said after the awards ceremony. “It was a tough break. It’s been a long time since that trophy has come back to BC, I thought I could do it this weekend.”
Eligh prepared a contemporary take on a seafood chowder, with lobster and sablefish served under a delicately crisp web-like “bread bowl” for the grand finale dinner.
“It was 24 hours of labour to get [the 600 bread bowls] ready,” he said. “We drove here very slowly.”
This was Eligh’s first appearance at the Canadian Culinary Championships, and will likely be his last.
“I’m not a competition guy,” he said. “Competition is a different animal in our business. You have to be operating on a different level. I think once is enough for me.”
Antonio Park of the eponymous Park Restaurant in Montréal took home the silver medal with a bibimbap roulade inspired by his Korean homeland.
In all, 11 chefs from coast-to-coast competed in the finals: Renée Lavallée (The Canteen, Halifax), Mark McCrowe (Aqua Kitchen and Bar, St. John’s), Patrick Garland (Absinthe Café, Ottawa), John Horne (Canoe, Toronto), Luc Jean (Jane’s, Winnipeg), Chris Hill (Delta Bessborough, Saskatoon), Milton Rebello (Wascana Country Club, Regina), and Dave Bohati (Market, Calgary).
The competition took place over two days at the Delta Grand Okanagan Resort and Conference Centre, with the black box competition held at Okanagan College’s culinary arts campus. Students from the culinary arts program worked with the chefs as part of their teams for the competition.
McCrowe took home the People’s Choice Award during the mystery wine pairing event on Friday night, pleasing the crowd with his with his braised beef shortrib with a molasses spiced rum glaze, accompanied by a parsnip and celery root puree, pickled plums, stewed local cherries, and a salad of parsley, shallots and radish. With a budget of just $600, the 11 chefs were required to create 500 tasting plates to pair with a mystery bottle of wine, which turned out to be Stoneboat Vineyards’ 2012 Pinotage, from Oliver in the South Okanagan.
Saturday morning saw the chefs compete in the dreaded black box event, each having to create a dish on the spot in under an hour using at least six of the 10 secret ingredients provided. This year’s black box contained Muscovy duck, lobster, quinoa, hazelnuts, seabuckthorn berry, turnip, yams, granny smith and honeycrisp apples, fresh lavender, and ricotta cheese.
The competition finished Saturday night with the grand finale, where the chefs were able to create a signature dish with no restrictions on ingredients or cost.
The Gold Medal Plates Canadian Culinary Championships is a fundraiser for the Canadian Olympic Foundation, raising close to $12 million since the event began in 2006.
