By: Catrina Leone: intern
The Fabulous Food Show is just that, a celebration of fabulous food! It is an event that many people love to attend. Tri-C’s Culinary Challenge which was Mceed by TV20’s Leah Haslage was also an added staple for the Food Show, which made it even more entertaining!
The Tri-C Hospitality Management Center NEO Culinary challenge is something that has been done for the past few years. This year, things were shook up a bit. Normally, Tri-C culinary students competed against other Tri-C culinary students. This year, Tri-C had Akron University and Lorain County Community College to compete against. There could only be one winner, hopefully you all can hold your excitement in until I make that big announcement. The challenge was held this past Friday November 8th. Each school had their own chef mentors to look to for guidance and support this year! Not only did they have a chef mentor to look up too, they also had four amazing celebrity judges weighing in the big decision.
The winning team was honored at the Inaugural Cleveland Culinary awards gala, which was held later that evening, with a 4-course meal prepared by Hugh Acheson. Students from LCC, Tri-C and Akron came out to support their fellow classmates for just $15 dollars!
Now, on to those celebrity judges who made this event more incredible! First, we have Hugh Acheson. He is a Canadian celebrity chef and restaurateur. He owns three restaurants in Georgia, and serves as a judge on the reality cooking competition shows Top Chef and Top Chef Masters. Daniel Thomas is an acclaimed Chef, Cookbook Author, and Philanthropist. Chef Thomas is a graduate of the World’s Premier Culinary College, The Culinary Institute of America. He is a native of Washington, DC and has spent much of his career serving culinary creations at restaurants, hotels and dining rooms inside and around the Beltway to residents, tourists, politicians, entertainers, athletes, celebrities and the President of the United States. One of the highlights of his career was serving with the team of chefs at the Annual Kennedy Center Honors Awards Program. On the day of the 2009 Presidential Inauguration, he had the honor to cook and serve brunch to our nation’s 44th President, Barack Obama, The First Lady, and Vice President Joseph Biden. Next up on this fine list we have Joe Crea. He is the Food and Resturants editor for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He also represents Cleveland.com and Sun Newspapers. Lisa Abraham is the last of the celebrity judges for the event. She is the Food and Lifestyle repoter for the Akron Beacon journal, and is the author of the book Famous Chefs, Fabulous Recipes. She talks about various topics but makes food her number one focus. With a round-up of judges like this, the students had to bring their A-game!
Have you been able to contain your excitement this long? I am about to tell you who the winner was. Drum roll please……Cuyahoga Community College took it all that day, winning over the judges. Those students got to attend the gala that was held that night, alone with winning other amazing prizes! Each school had to create a dish with Pork which was the dish to utilize. They also had to include a vegetable and starch. Their hard work and determination rightfully paid off, good job to all the schools involved and congratulations Tri-C! (my former school) Stay tuned to TV20 for more highlights, as I mentioned Leah Haslage was there to MC this event and had a blast. For the latest news, also follow us on Twitter. Happy Veteran’s Day!
