On October 23, two teams of second-year students in Durham College’s (DC) Culinary Management program took home multiple awards at the 2018 Student Chef Challenge, hosted at DC’s W. Galen Weston Centre for Food.

Sponsored by Ontario Sheep Farmers and Mushrooms Canada, the challenge brought together students from DC, Fleming College and Centennial College to prepare and present three internationally-inspired lamb and mushroom dishes to a panel of industry judges.

Students worked with faculty mentors to guide them through the finer aspects of butchery – an essential skill required of today’s culinary arts professionals – and were provided with high-quality ingredients, including fresh mushrooms from Gordon Food Service (GFS), to test their expertise in recipe development techniques.

DC’s Team A, comprised of second-year students Kacey Payne, Sharon Nanninga and Patrick Eckert won second place overall in the competition. Team B’s Kinsley Moore, George Donovan, and Caden McBeth won the award for Best Butchery Skills and were presented with a set of high-quality butcher knives from Canada Cutlery Inc.

This exciting experience for students went above and beyond regular classroom learning, giving them the opportunity to receive valuable feedback from judges and begin building a name for themselves in the industry.

All recipes from the competition will be featured in a future cookbook jointly-published by Ontario Sheep Farmers and Mushrooms Canada, with the students receiving credit for their contributions.