The crowd buzzed with excitement as the young chefs served their meals to the judges, who sat on an elevated table in the middle of the audience. We watched in anticipation as the judges cleared their plates, contemplating every mouthful. Meanwhile, the young chefs were tense with excitement and apprehension. They were the competitors, after all. As the host started to announce the winners, suddenly the crowd was cheering so loudly, I could barely hear the host of the show talking on stage.
This announced the end of the Royal High School Chef Competition.
The Royal High School Chef Competition took place on Tuesday, November 10, 2015, featuring several teams of students from culinary high schools across Ontario. The carefully chosen teams entered their finest recipes to the competition. The recipes reflected Ontario’s cooking style (including Ontario produce), were served as a fast-food option for cafeterias, met Ontario’s School Nutrition Standards, showed creativity, and tasted and smelled appetizing.
The winners, The Bendale Business and Technical Institute, looked stunned onstage as they were presented the Rosettes of culinary excellence that would hang in their school. The stage was instantly bombarded with cameras that no one had noticed before.
“I like cooking because I really like the fast pace in the kitchen,” Caroline, a member of the winning team, said. Caroline and Emily started cooking when they started high school, while Brooklyn and Chase were young beginners that started cooking at 12 years old.
“I just like the idea of making food,” Brooklyn simply stated when asked why she likes to cook. “I like the idea of making anything out of nothing.”
“It [the dish] took a lot of planning and preparation to figure out how to cook it, prepare it, and to serve it,” Chase explained. He thinks it was all their preparation that earned them first place.
“The hardest thing I would say is making sure you have everything fully cooked, all done, on time, and making sure it’s done in the right amount of time,” Emily concluded when asked about the hardest and easiest thing in cooking.
Overall, I think the Royal High School Chef Competition was a blast! Aside from the food itself, the making of it was really amazing and exciting. I loved watching the culinary skill, interviewing the chefs, and smelling the delicious scents that wafted from the plates. I had an excellent time and I encourage all readers to go to the next Royal High School Chef Competition, wherever you can find one!
