I won't be offended if Fresh Foodie deletes the below for copyright reasons :-)
I think the above URL is good for only 14 days
---snip---
FOR THE 2007 International Prince Edward Island Shellfish Chefs Challenge, the ultra-prepared Peter Dewar took with him 22 Paderno pots, $48 worth of labels for every utensil, ingredient and dish, and in the words of one judge, a "quiet confidence."
Three days and the first-place prize of $10,000 later, Dewar was on his way to the Audi dealership to take possession of a red A4.
"It’s been a good year," said Dewar, who in the spring was presented with the $1,500 Alex Clavel award, conferred by Taste of Nova Scotia toward a chef’s professional development.
Now an instructor at the Nova Scotia Community College campus in Kentville, Dewar, like many chefs, knew what he wanted to do at a young age. On his 16th birthday, he got a job at Pizza Delight in Riverview, N.B. After that, he went to the Culinary Institute of Canada in Charlottetown, and after graduation in 1993, apprenticed in Switzerland for a couple of years.
Chefs are known for their endurance, and during a five-winter stint at a French restaurant in Whistler, B.C., Dewar drove back and forth across Canada 12 times before settling in at the Pines Resort and Spa in Digby, where he spent seven years as executive sous chef working under Claude Aucoin, long one of the very best chefs in Nova Scotia.
"Claude’s been a great mentor to me and has definitely helped me along," said Dewar, 34. "He taught me how to appreciate wine and food together, and I owe a lot of my success to Claude."
After leaving the Pines, Dewar became an instructor, teaching in Sydney before moving to Kingstec, where aspiring chefs study for two years.
"We try to simulate the industry as much as possible. We treat our kitchen like the industry (would) so we can prepare our students to go into the industry and be successful," said Dewar. "So we give them all the tools they need in the first year, and in the second year we step it up and the students have a little more control over their menus, and we teach them a little more modern cookery."
Dewar, the captain of Culinary Team Nova Scotia the last four years, took the chance that he could use the modern tools he loves to prepare shellfish dishes that would meet the approval of the judges in Charlottetown.
Using what chefs call "molecular" techniques, Dewar’s entry made use of food chemicals, parsley foam and lots of Asian influences.
His "apple caviar" was made from bubbles of apple juice that are suspended, so that when you pop them in your mouth, they burst. He also works with a material he jokingly refers to as "soil," which is essentially ground cake that’s been dried to give it a different texture.
"There’s science in it, there’s art and there’s creativity," Dewar said of molecular cookery. "Once you get creative with things, there are endless possibilities and I’ve found there’s lots of trial and error."
His award-winning dessert has all the elements of an apple pie that’s been deconstructed. The goal is to put it back together in a different way so that it still tastes like apple pie.
Chefs from Germany, the U.S. and across Canada competed in the shellfish challenge, and had five hours to prepare a three-course meal, serving eight plates of each, including a shellfish entree.
"The night before, at midnight, I changed some things around, but we received the black box (the day) before and from there we created our menus," Dewar said. "It was all shellfish: lobster, oysters, mussels, quahogs and you have to use everything in the black box."
The competing chefs were judged on how they conducted themselves in the kitchen, as well as on the food they turned out. Dewar got extra marks because he took the time to explain everything he was doing to his apprentice, who he’d never met before the contest started.
zymurgist
I won't be offended if Fresh Foodie deletes the below for copyright reasons :-)
I think the above URL is good for only 14 days
---snip---
FOR THE 2007 International Prince Edward Island Shellfish Chefs Challenge, the ultra-prepared Peter Dewar took with him 22 Paderno pots, $48 worth of labels for every utensil, ingredient and dish, and in the words of one judge, a "quiet confidence."
Three days and the first-place prize of $10,000 later, Dewar was on his way to the Audi dealership to take possession of a red A4.
"It’s been a good year," said Dewar, who in the spring was presented with the $1,500 Alex Clavel award, conferred by Taste of Nova Scotia toward a chef’s professional development.
Now an instructor at the Nova Scotia Community College campus in Kentville, Dewar, like many chefs, knew what he wanted to do at a young age. On his 16th birthday, he got a job at Pizza Delight in Riverview, N.B. After that, he went to the Culinary Institute of Canada in Charlottetown, and after graduation in 1993, apprenticed in Switzerland for a couple of years.
Chefs are known for their endurance, and during a five-winter stint at a French restaurant in Whistler, B.C., Dewar drove back and forth across Canada 12 times before settling in at the Pines Resort and Spa in Digby, where he spent seven years as executive sous chef working under Claude Aucoin, long one of the very best chefs in Nova Scotia.
"Claude’s been a great mentor to me and has definitely helped me along," said Dewar, 34. "He taught me how to appreciate wine and food together, and I owe a lot of my success to Claude."
After leaving the Pines, Dewar became an instructor, teaching in Sydney before moving to Kingstec, where aspiring chefs study for two years.
"We try to simulate the industry as much as possible. We treat our kitchen like the industry (would) so we can prepare our students to go into the industry and be successful," said Dewar. "So we give them all the tools they need in the first year, and in the second year we step it up and the students have a little more control over their menus, and we teach them a little more modern cookery."
Dewar, the captain of Culinary Team Nova Scotia the last four years, took the chance that he could use the modern tools he loves to prepare shellfish dishes that would meet the approval of the judges in Charlottetown.
Using what chefs call "molecular" techniques, Dewar’s entry made use of food chemicals, parsley foam and lots of Asian influences.
His "apple caviar" was made from bubbles of apple juice that are suspended, so that when you pop them in your mouth, they burst. He also works with a material he jokingly refers to as "soil," which is essentially ground cake that’s been dried to give it a different texture.
"There’s science in it, there’s art and there’s creativity," Dewar said of molecular cookery. "Once you get creative with things, there are endless possibilities and I’ve found there’s lots of trial and error."
His award-winning dessert has all the elements of an apple pie that’s been deconstructed. The goal is to put it back together in a different way so that it still tastes like apple pie.
Chefs from Germany, the U.S. and across Canada competed in the shellfish challenge, and had five hours to prepare a three-course meal, serving eight plates of each, including a shellfish entree.
"The night before, at midnight, I changed some things around, but we received the black box (the day) before and from there we created our menus," Dewar said. "It was all shellfish: lobster, oysters, mussels, quahogs and you have to use everything in the black box."
The competing chefs were judged on how they conducted themselves in the kitchen, as well as on the food they turned out. Dewar got extra marks because he took the time to explain everything he was doing to his apprentice, who he’d never met before the contest started.
"