Culinary team ready to go

Local chefs prepare to compete in Germany

They'll be taking their recipes. They'll be taking pre-cut and pre-cooked food. But mostly what the culinary cooking team for Las Vegas will need to take is coffee ... lots of it.

"We'll be up for 33 hours straight," said Peter Sherlock, executive chef at JW Marriott, 221 N. Rampart Blvd. "From 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., when the judges are in the room, then we can sleep."

Team Las Vegas plans to travel to Erfurt, Germany, on Oct. 12, staying until Oct. 23. They are entered in an international competition called Culinary Olympics "I.K.A. 2004" which runs Oct. 17-20.

There are 120-150 teams expected to compete, which translates to about 1,000 people. They come from all over the world and this is the first time a culinary team from Las Vegas has entered the competition.

Besides Sherlock, chefs include: William Becker, the Rio's director of culinary operations; Pete Ghione, the Rio's Chef de Cuisine; Katherine Donaho, Mandalay Bay's executive pastry chef; and Richard Han, Mandalay Bay's assistant garde manger chef.

The event requires each team to present a set of dishes including: six appetizers, individually prepared for one person, plus one for the judges to taste; show platters; one menu consisting of three courses (hor' d oeuvre, main course and dessert); four innovative main courses; and three cakes to serve six to eight people.

It also requires one platter with petit fours, five types for eight persons; and four desserts to serve one person.

The food has to cover a 9-foot by 12-foot table and presentation is as much a part of the judging as the taste of the food. When it comes to presentation, uniformity is the name of the game.

"I should be able to have you look at the table, then tell you to close your eyes," Sherlock said. "If I move one item, say, switch one appetizer with another of the same appetizer, when you look again, you should not be able to tell which one I moved."

Besides the five chefs, there are five students on the team and two interpreters will travel with them.

The students are from the Community College of Southern Nevada's culinary school and include: Jenny Turner; Lupe Castro; Ray Lloyd; Michael Sandoval; and student team captain Christine Zaradin.

They were chosen partly because they had been in competitions before. CCSN culinary students compete at least twice a year in state, regional and national events.

An integral part of the team, they will do a lot of the initial food preparation. They will also prepare meals to feed the busy chefs.

John Metcalf, director of culinary arts at CCSN, said most of the students ran out to get their passports as soon as they learned of the competition.

"For a culinary student, this opportunity is a chance of a lifetime," Metcalf said. "It's a chance for them to meet the best of the best from all over the world."

In Germany, the event means using the kitchen of an established hotel. Since that hotel has its own patrons to serve, Team Las Vegas will only have use of it in the wee hours of the night.

That might seem to be a disadvantage, but it works well with jet lag, Sherlock said, as 8 a.m. in Las Vegas is 5 p.m. in Germany.

To prepare for the October competition, the team has been poring over recipes to ensure they fit all the rules and holding trial runs.

In April, Sherlock took home the gold during the Las Vegas Culinary Challenge at Mandalay Bay. He was one of 25 chefs participating in the competition. He's been in other competitions and said he thrives on the pressure.

"The best part of being in a competition is the excitement," Sherlock said. "It's a test of your skills. And the pressure ... I love the pressure."


<<--[back]