Chefs get cooking at culinary challenge competition at Rice

BY KYLE HARDWICK
Special to the Rice News

Rice University Housing and Dining hosted its second annual American Culinary Federation-sanctioned National Association of College and University Food Services (NACUFS) Culinary Challenge Competition Dec. 16.

		Top: Ryan Trout, sous chef at the South Servery and for Catering, prepares his entry in the second annual culinary challenge competition held at Rice this week. Middle: Maude Jurisprudencia, food production associate at the North Servery, puts the finishing touches on her dish. Bottom: The  bronze-medal-winning dish by Lillie Yvonne Sternes, certified pastry culinarian and food production associate at Lovett College. The oblong-shaped carrot topping this dish demonstrates the required vegetable cut in the challenge, a “tournee,” one of the most difficult cuts to execute. JEFF FITLOW

Six competitors from four of the kitchen operations on campus participated in the challenge that required chefs to create an original recipe and prepare four plates using a key ingredient with accompaniments and classical vegetable cuts. This year’s theme was portobello mushroom, and one of the required vegetable cuts was a “tournee,” an oblong-shaped cut for vegetables and one of the more difficult cuts to execute. The chefs had one hour to prepare their dishes, with an additional five minutes to plate and present their plates to the judges.

Selena Rivera, certified working pastry chef at the North Servery, earned the highest score and was awarded a bronze medal for her dish, seared New York strip steak with braised mushroom ragout. She will represent Rice University at the NACUFS Southern Regional Culinary Challenge Competition in March at the University of North Texas in Denton. Lillie Yvonne Sternes, certified pastry culinarian and food production associate at Lovett College, also won a bronze medal for her dish, crawfish and andouille Cajun rice pilaf with portobello mushrooms and Swiss chard. Those earning certificates of participation included Maude Jurisprudencia, food production associate at the North Servery; Cesar Tovar, food production associate at the West Servery; Gabriel Aguilar, food production associate at the West Servery; and Ryan Trout, sous chef at the South Servery and for Catering.

NACUFS Culinary Challenge was established in 2000, with Rice chefs participating in the competition almost every year since 2001. For the past six years, Housing and Dining has held an in-house competition to determine which Rice chef would represent the university at the NACUFS Southern Regional Conference. The winner at the regional conferences advances to compete at the national conference. Previous Rice chefs to compete at the regional or national levels include Roger Elkhouri, certified executive chef; Edward Castillo, certified chef de cuisine; and Rivera.

The competition was held at the new West Servery and was chaired by Kyle Hardwick, certified executive chef, and co-chair Olivia Waldron, certified sous chef and residential dining manager. Castillo coached the chefs. The American Culinary Federation judges were certified executive chefs Patrick Mitchell, Bernard Urban and Larry Matson.

–Kyle Hardwick is a certified executive chef and managing chef at the South Servery.