All over the world on October twentieth professional culinary organizations, chefs and cooks, get involved in doing good deeds within their local communities. Winnipeg CCF branch working with Siloam Mission, along with the partnership of Sysco Foodservice and City Bread, were able to help to provide the homeless people of Winnipeg with a nutritious and delicious meal to recognize the day.

Over four hundred meals were prepared in the morning by a brigade of culinary volunteers spearheaded by members of the Canadian Culinary Federation Winnipeg Branch and students from the Red River College Indigenous program lead by Chef Michael Fitzhenry. Outstanding efforts by Chef Karl Oman from RRC Paterson Global Foods, Chef Jared Lavellee of Via Rail, Chef instructor Jeff Bilous of Maples Collegiate, Chef Sookyung Shin of Great West Life, and Chef Hans Schweitzer guaranteed an excellent meal.

Thanks goes out to the hard working guy from Sysco, Kevin Penner and his side kick Heather, for cleaning all of the beautiful broccoli and their assistance in the service of the meals to the homeless.

Special thanks to the Chef Chris Buffington and  Sous Chef Marilou from Siloam Mission who helped to guide us through their routines in serving hot meals three times a day, three hundred and sixty five days a year to those in need. Their work is an inspiration.

The Canadian Culinary Federation Winnipeg Branch would like to thank all the sponsors and volunteers who helped us to reach out to the needy on International Chefs Day. The lunch guests were very appreciative of the fine meal they received and gave us many thanks.

The biggest news out of the National Canadian Culinary Federation conference this June was that  the Sysco Senior Challenge Competitor from Winnipeg, Chef Gordon Bailey a Red River College  Culinary instructor took second place in Canada’s top culinary competition.

In the junior competition, also held in Charlottetown , Prince Edward Island, the  second place winner was  also from Winnipeg and is  Argie Garcia a Red River College culinary student and apprentice at the St. Charles Country Club.

Both Chefs Gordon and Argie faced some stiff competition and performed in a very professional and composed manner that does us proud. Congratulations.

The Winnipeg Branch Culinary juniors lead by Michael Fitzhenry CCC and junior president Travis Leost hosted a great fundraiser at Kitchen Sync this past Saturday night.

Helping to make the evening a culinary success was CCF Chef of the year , Jesse Friesen, Junior Chef of the year, Christy Barkman and a culinary team consisting of junior members Vien Salimbacod, Riki Wuerz, Adam Mysak, Dakota Muggleton, Francesca Agatep, Ian Shapira and  Yoni Mehari. Thanks go out to RRC Students  Anthony Carino, Glory-lee Vista, Domingo Jamoyot, and Brandon Campbell for their work on completing the culinary delights.

The fundraiser will help pay for expenses for Junior members to attend the national conference in Charlotetown  P.E.I. in June.

Thanks to our sponsors for the evening Sysco Food Service,  Mariner Neptune, and Granny’s Poultry for their generous contributions of food to the event.

The Juniors had a great time preparing the evening offerings and were able to execute well and make sure it was a successful evening.

Thanks to all those volunteers who were instrumental in bringing this event together, as well as Chef Jesse Friesen and Chef Claire Snowball, who donated their valuable time to support the junior members.

The April meeting of Winnipeg CCF was hosted by our friends at G.F.S. at their modern facility. Chefs were introduced to Beyond Meat which is a plant based protein burger made from pea protein and all GMO, Gluten, and Soy free. Thanks to the team at G.F.S. for the delicious and informative evening

Chef Gordon Bailey

The CCF Winnipeg Sysco Senior Challenge was held on April 4 th 2018 at the Sysco kitchen with the cooperation of  CCF Winnipeg branch, Sysco and corporate Chef Peter Ecker. Five talented local chefs competed in a black box competition in the Manitoba regional competition. For three of the members it was the first time they had the opportunity to compete in such a competition. They learned a lot and came away winners in their own right. It was a close competition with the overall winner was declared  Gordon Bailey, culinary instructor from Red River College.  Second place awarded to Jordon Carlson from Joey’s on Kenaston. Third place awarded to Jose Noboa of Gardewine and honorable mentions to Mark Pichette and Sookyung Shin.

Thanks to Peter Eckar and his Sysco team for holding the competition. Thank you to the team of judges including  John Reimers, Ron Dobrinsky, Jesse Friesen, Helmut Mathae, Paul Lemire and his Culinary student Faith for their time and effort in making the competition a success.

Chef Gordon Bailey will be heading off to the national competition in Charlottetown P.E. I. this June for the Sysco national competition. The Winnipeg Branch will sponsor Argie Garcia, apprentice at the St. Charles Country Club, who will also be attending the national conference and competing in the Culinary Federations Junior challenge.

Winnipeg will be well represented in Charlottetown at the conference and competition.

Good luck to all our competitors.

Paul Lemire

CCF Winnipeg

President