Winnipeg Branch of the Canadian Culinary Federation held the local Lactalis Culinary Challenge to a full house at Sysco on April 19, 2024. The Competition was sponsored by Lactalis Food Service Canada and featured teams of four, three students and a mentor chef who were given one hour of kitchen time to create an original recipe using the mystery ingredient and the fantastic ingredients table set up by Chef Peter Ecker and the team at Sysco. The mystery ingredient was Khaas Labneh. Labneh is a soft Middle Eastern cheese made from strained yogurt.

Team RRC

Team Maples

Sandy Sanderson Award Winner , Brian Humniski

Team Tec Voc II

Guest Judge Thomas “Tommy” Schneider, owner of Tommy’s Pizzeria and winner of multiple pizza awards and Global Embassador for Lactalis brand Galbani Mozza Cheese.

Tec Voc I , the winning team!!!

Team Tec Voc II

Team Tec Voc I

The winning team will be sent to our CCF National Convention in Edmonton May 26-30, 2024. The prize package will include registration for all team members to the National Convention, Airfare for round trip Winnipeg to Edmonton, and hotel accommodation. In addition to attending the convention, the winning team chef and juniors will also represent the CCF Winnipeg Branch at the Lactalis Food Service booth.

The teams consisted of :

Team 1   Maples Collegiate

Captain Chef Justin Brown, Rez Joshua Gutang, Gerry Louis Germono, Derick Balmores, S.J. Esiyo

Team 2   Tec Voc

Captain Chef Sergei Didenko, Owen Ocon Mendoza, Mateo Villanueva, Justine Young Jose

Team 3   Red River College

Captain Chef Ryan Morton, J.P Buxton, Ryden Dizon,  Ghian Garcia

Team 4 – Winning Team Tec Voc High School

Captain Andrew Laturnus, Will Paille, Sloan Frazer, Manveet Dhaliwal

The competition was judged by Culinary Federation certified judges who were joined by local pizza guru Thomas “Tommy” Schneider, owner of Tommy’s Pizzeria and winner of multiple pizza awards and is a Global Embassador for Lactalis brand Galbani Mozza Cheese.

Tommy, began his pizza making career at age 15 working at Doughboys Pizza on Pembina Highway in Winnipeg. It was from there his love for pizza grew and he started looking at possible franchises to gain some business experience. At age 19 Thomas moved to a small town outside of the Dallas–Fort Worth area and opened his first franchise. A year later he opened up a second location. “My dream was always to open up my own pizza restaurant one day and I thought this would be a great place to gain some business experience”

The chefs will be cheering on our local team of students from Tec Voc High School as they compete next month in Edmonton.