Tidings Mav Chef Wins Gold
It’s been a stellar few months for all things culinary. The Gold Medal Plates competition (a fundraiser for olympians and paralympians) has managed to bring out the best in all the competing chefs.
Chef Dan Walker of Weczeria Food & Wine, featured as one of this year’s Tidings Maverick Chefs (October 2010) has proved his culinary prowess once again. Saturday night he took home the gold award at the Saskatoon 2010 Gold Medal Plates competition. Chef Walker went head-to-head with Saskatchewan’s finest culinary masters at this prestigious culinary competition, held at TCU Place in Saskatoon on Saturday October 30, 2010. He will compete at the Canadian Culinary Championships, the Gold Medal Plates Finale, held in Kelowna Feb. 18th and 19th. Check out the Events Directory for the details. Some tickets are still available.
To secure the win, Chef Walker presented the judges with a dish of wild boar belly and leg served with carrots, sunchoke and Yukon Gold potato gnocchi. The paired wine was Road 13 Rockpile 2008 from Okanagan Valley, British Columbia. “It’s amazing,” Walker said after being announced the winner. “Everybody worked really hard . . . it was a whole team effort to win this – I’m just a public face.”
Chef Ryan Marquis of the Delta Bessborough, rose to the occasion as well, taking the silver medal. Chef Ryan’s team created a play on bacon and eggs serving a smoked molasses maple pork belly with a parsnip mousseline and a foie gras crème brulée set in an egg shell cup. The paired wine was Black Hills Nota Bene 2008 from British Columbia.
Taking the bronze medal was Chef Anthony McCarthy of The Saskatoon Club. His dish was a braised pig cheek served with a semi dehydrated Prairie Sensation apple pirozhki along with fava beans and chanterelle mushrooms topped with a black truffle and skin crisp. The paired wine was Peller Estates Pinot Blanc 2008 also from Okanagan Valley, British Columbia.
The guests were not only treated to great food, they also had the opportunity to mingle with celebrated Olympians and Paralympians including keynote speaker and Vancouver 2010 Olympic hero, Alexandre Bilodeau who was inspiring and captivating in his hot stove interview with Catriona Le May Doan as he allowed the guests to relive his gold medal moment. The evening entertainment was provided by Jim Cuddy, Colin James, Barney Bentall and Ron James.