Food television has come a long way since the era of Julia Child and the Galloping Gourmet.
No longer are chefs restricted to demonstrating basic techniques on single-camera cooking shows. Today, culinary specialty channels such as the juggernaut Food Network are dominated by nail-biting competitions (including the wildly popular Top Chef and Iron Chef franchises) wherein chefs compete for cash prizes and a shot at fame. Cooking is now a true spectator sport, enjoyed by amateur chefs and armchair foodies alike.
Hence the existence and popularity of the Almost Famous Chef Competition. Sponsored by fine folks behind S. Pellegrino Sparkling Mineral Water, the Almost Famous Chef Competition — now in its eleventh year — invites leading culinary schools from across North America to send their best and brightest to Napa Valley to compete for a taste of celebrity life: $22,000 in prize money, a one-year apprenticeship with a celebrity chef, and the opportunity to recreate their winning dish during a whirlwind media tour.
But to get to the final round of the competition, the student chefs must win one of 10 regional competitions. In Canada, that competition will take place in Toronto on February 25. And of the seven student chefs vying to represent Canada, two of them are training right here in Vancouver.
On a drizzly February afternoon, a small group of reporters and food bloggers gathered in an Art Institute of Vancouver (AIV) kitchen to observe the two locally trained finalists — Matt Cusano, a student at the AIV International Culinary School, and Kevan Hafichuk, a student at Pacific Institute for Culinary Arts (PICA) — in action.
In this new age of competition shows and celebrity foodies, chefs must be equally adept at cooking under pressure and shining in media interviews — thus the format of the meet-and-greet, which found the chefs chatting with reporters as they prepared tasting spoons of the dishes they'll be showcasing on the national stage.
Alternating between his prep table and a stove, Hafichuk, 21, credited the Food Network with launching him on his burgeoning career. In December 2011, Hafichuk was playing football for the University of Calgary when he was sidelined by a career-ending shoulder injury. "I had a bunch of downtime, and during that downtime I started watching the Food Network and cooking at home," he says. "I started to develop a passion for it, and here I am. I'm not looking back whatsoever."
Hafichuk — whose tasting spoons featured oxtail tortellini with sustainable BC spot prawns cooked in kaffir lime butter sauce with roasted cauliflower and cauliflower puree garnished with baby watercress — secured his spot in the competition by winning a school-wide cook-off.
"We were asked to make a meringue in five minutes, but [PICA Executive Chef Julian Bond], being the sneaky guy that he is, spiked all the bowls with grease, and if you have any grease in the bowl, you're not going to be able to make a meringue," says Hafichuk. "But I always practise good kitchen principles, and so I wiped my bowl and I made a meringue. There were only five of us of 50 who did that, and out of those five, I had the best meringue."
Over at the other prep table, Cusano was hard at work on his own tasting spoons: miso-glazed poached halibut with chorizo and parsnip puree garnished with celery leaves.
For Cusano, 19, competitions have given him the opportunity to explore his love of sophisticated flavours while refining his technique. "I grew up in an Italian household, so food is a big part of my culture and who I am," says Cusano, who particularly enjoys black box cooking competitions. "I learn a lot about who I am and what I can do from every competition I enter."
The Toronto competition won't be the first time the two young chefs have gone head to head against each other. In 2012, Cusano and Hafichuk were on competing teams in a showdown held by the BC Food Expo. Hafichuk's team won gold, and Cusano's won silver. But what's past is past, and the two chefs are heading to Toronto on equal footing.
