The Professional Culinary Institute’s Hot Food Team Wins Gold Medal at the CA State Championship

Nov. 17, 2009 - PRLog -- Five students from The Professional Culinary Institutes (www.pcichef.com) Culinary and Baking & Pastry Arts Programs, Girija Kaushik, Patricia Liu, Khuong Nguyen, Carrie Pearl and Tiffany Young competed against Orange Coast Community College and The Institute of Technology – Roseville teams to represent California at The Western Regional in Albuquerque, NM in February.

The team was led and mentored by their Team Manager Chef Randy Torres, Team Coach Chef Jeremy MacVeigh, Team Coordinator Lanni Wui, also advised by Edalyn Garcia and Alfonso Mendoza, members of the 2009 Scot-Hot World Culinary Grand Prix Championship team. This year the team also has two official apprentices, Michael Prologo and Reilly Meehan, who practiced along with the team and provided tremendous support.    

The competition consisted of two parts. First part was an 80 minute skills relay (fish & chicken butchery, knife skills, and pastry skills). In the second part, the team had to prepare four portions of a four-course meal in 90 minutes. The competition was judged by four ACF judges, one kitchen judge who watched the students’ work & sanitation in the kitchen, and three tasting judges. The judges were especially impressed with the team’s dessert this year, calling it “near perfect”! The dessert consists of ganache & caramel filled pumpkin mousse on hazelnut crumbs and topped w/ Italian meringue, flourless chocolate cake, sour cream ice cream, red berry sauce, thyme-infused diced pumpkin, and vanilla French macaroon.

The team competed amazingly this year, bringing home a gold medal and are now excited to represent CA at The Western Regional in Albuquerque, NM in February.

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Professional Culinary Institute
700 W. Hamilton Avenue | Campbell, CA 95008
(408) 370-9190
info@pcichef.com
http://www.professionalculinaryinstitute.com