Pittsburgh ACF Student Team Competition

On Sunday January 14th 2007 Pittsburgh’s ACF Student Team of Ashley Korma and Natalie Hodous from the Art Institute, Tristan O.C Haseler, Dave Uram and Anthony Smith from PCI competed against a team from Philadelphia’s Art Institute in Pennsylvania’s Annual ACF Student team competition.

The morning began at 7:30 with the Skill Salon. Pittsburgh’s team of Tristan, Ashley, Dave and Natalie were each randomly assigned to perform one of 4 basic culinary skills in an 80 minute relay-style format. First to compete was Tristan on vegetable cuts where he had to cut 4oz of Julianne potatoes, 8 potato Tournee, peel and small dice 2 tomatoes, and peel and small dice 1 onion. Next would be Ashley who was assigned the filleting of 2 Sea Bass. Next Dave would be assigned the fabrication of 2 chickens. And anchoring the team was Natalie who made 1 qt of pastry cream, peeled and sectioned one orange and rolled out and lined 1 8inch pie tart.

At 9:45 after a 30 minute set-up period the team began the second cooking phase of the competition. The team would now have 75 minutes to complete four 4-course meals with a 15 minute serving window. The menu must consist of a fish appetizer, a salad course, an entrée course and a dessert course.
The appetizer, salad and dessert course were of the teams choosing but the entrée was a pre-designated Classical dish taken from Escoffier: The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cooking. Natalie prepared a robust seafood appetizer. A seafood trio with Smoked Sea Bass Cornets stuffed with Poached Shrimp, a Seared Scallop stuffed with a slice of Truffle, Fluted Mushroom with and a dill Beurre Blanc sauce. Dave was responsible for the salad course and nicely presented Bouquet of Greens and diced Apple Cucumber Salad with balsamic vinaigrette. Tristan was assigned the classical entrée Supreme de Volaille a L’Ecarlate (chicken breast with red ox tongue) with sauce supreme, Anna Potatoes, Asparagus Spears and Oblique Carrots. Ashley’s dessert was a colorful sampler composed of a Fresh Fruit Salad with a Mint Gastrique, a Chocolate Ganache tart and a Grand Marnier Soufflé. Months of weekend morning practices, countless hours of worry and anticipation, five long hours of that morning’s competition were now all in the past. The hours of sacrifice and dedication that were spent perfecting the skills that went into the dishes were now being judged and scores tallied in one the Philadelphia Art Institute’s kitchens. The winner would go on to represent Pennsylvania at the regional competition in March the loser would get to sleep in on Saturday and Sunday mornings. The final tally and Pennsylvania state champion was our own Pittsburgh contingent. To Ashley, Natalie, Dave, Tristan and Anthony CONGRATULATIONS.

John Hittinger