Stiff Competition; Culinary Arts Throwdown

Last Saturday, I was invited to be a judge at the Apollo Beach Manatee Festival of the Arts Culinary Competition. The common ingredient for the teams involved was pork loin. Students from East Bay High nailed their Venice Parmesan Pork Tender Loin, Italian Green Tomato Medley and elegant dish of Grape Poached Pear.




Made by the the talented chefs-in-training from Sickles High School, this lime mousse with orange gaulette, raspberries, mango and blood orange syrup was incredible.



This grape poached pear with strawberry ice-cream was a winner.






Riverview High students presented this cranberry orange glazed pork loin with asparagus served on a bed of mashed sweet potatoes, which had a nice kick of cayenne pepper.




My judging colleagues were, from front, Chip Buck, food service director of South Bay Hospital; Jay Minzer, owner of Grateful Catering; and Chris Bodensky, executive chef of Circles Waterfront Restaurant, and that's me in the back.


Chef Rick Ceglio, culinary instructor at Sickles High School, explains to me how a gaulette iron works. Similar to a waffle iron, the gaulette was used to make a waffle-like cookie. The team used Chef Rick's grandmother's iron that has been in his family for more than 120 years. His grandmother was from Italy and used to make Italian cookies with it.