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

Recently the Winnipeg Branch of the Canadian Culinary Federation, with the cooperation of Red River College, hosted the Junior Chef Challenge for Manitoba. The event was held at Paterson Global Foods Institute , Red River College on Saturday March 17, 2018 and was a great display of the provinces young talents. The competition was organized by Chef Michael Fitzhenry and was the qualifying event to select the junior chef who will represent Manitoba at the National Conference of the CCFCC this June in Charlotetown P.E.I..

There was a field of six students representing college, industry and apprenticeship. The competition consisted of a black box of mystery ingredients common to all contestants with one hour to complete a dish consisting of the compulsory ingredients. The contest was a close one with fine displays of the skills and creativity of our up and coming culinary stars.

The competition resulted in the selection Argie Garcia , apprentice at the St. Charles Country Club as our representative for the nationals. Second Place was awarded Vien Salimbacod of the Glendale Country Club. Third Place was awarded to Shea Johnston of  Joey Kenaston. Honourable Mention to Elissa Polkowski , Adam Mysak and Anthony Carino who completed the field of competition.

Local members of the CCFCC educational community participated in the competition and selection of the candidate including Chef’s Jeremy Langeman, Ron Dobrinsky, Paul Lemire, Trevor Bailey, Terry Gereta and Brian Humniski. Last year’s recipient Christy Barkman acted as a culinary judge in the selection of this year’s recipient. Special thanks to the Paterson Global Foods Institute, Red River College and the culinary team for a successful event.

Argie Garcia of the St. Charles Country Club.

On January tenth the new year kicked of for the Winnipeg branch with a tour and tasting at The Little Brown Jug brewing company in the historic exchange district. We had the unique opportunity to meet the brew master, see his work and share a pint with the creator.

Housed in Winnipeg’s historical exchange district, the brewery markets directly to consumers with  growlers of beer sold in unique package presentation. Needless to say the brewery hosts a tasting area suitable for a sociable and an opportunity to pick up Winnipeg’s most popular brew, fresh from the vats.

While the brew house has prepared a variety of products, on the night we visited the full production was to become Winnipeg’s current most popular beer, “1919”. The beer is made using the traditional German kräusening, or double-fermentation technique, which cleans up beer flavors, naturally carbonates the beer, and gives it better head retention. “1919” is made with premium Canadian malts and specialty Franco-Belges malts to give it unique characteristics, Malts developed in 1919. The beers name is also a homage to the Winnipeg General Strike.

The Little Brown Jug’s Brew master, Bernhard Wieland has worked actively with the engineers, from the early days of their first brew, to build a quality brewing system from the ground up. Bernhard spent some time sharing the process and the unique qualities of their operation with the chefs. The brew house is Canadian-made and engineered and suitably equipped to offer a consistent and quality product. Many of the technologies employed at Little Brown Jug are often found in larger operations, but have been scaled to the 20 hectoliter production with plans to grow into the space and increase production by double and more.

Working together with the building owners, the brewery has developed a modern brewery with unique local flavor and a dedication to doing it right. The roof has been insulated from the outside to allow for the revealed timbers inside. The energy used to boil the beer wort is recaptured to heat city water for the next brew to reduce energy use. The brew house does not vent outside. The  Little Brown Jug setup uses a system of louvers to vent heat from the glycol chiller and air compressor outside in the summertime, but direct it inside all winter long. Back up heating runs off of the process boiler for the brew house making for a more sustainable heating system. They seem to be doing it all right.

Most importantly they are making great beer. We sampled an easy drinking Belgian Pale Ale, which would be an excellent accompaniment to almost any food. The event was Sponsored by Mariner Neptune and we had John Alexander introduce a new locally produced chicken wings  by “ Little Bones Wings” an operation that has grow from food truck to stand alone restaurant now to frozen prepared wings ready to cook. The “Little Bones “ wings provided an excellent accompaniment to the beer.

The evening had a great turnout consisting of our best new comers as well as some of our industry leaders. Special thanks to Elissa Polkowski , who was the 2017 Provincial Skills Champion for Manitoba who made the long drive to join us from Gull Harbor. We were also joined by longtime member and Order of Canada Recipient, Chef Takashi Murikami, who is soon to retire after a long career at the St. Charles Country Club.  Special thanks to Little Brown Jug, Little Wings, and Mariner Neptune for their help in making this event a success.

The Holiday Brunch was held on December 3 at the Holiday Inn South hosted by Chef Eldon Brink. A fine buffet and holiday gifts for the children was the highlight of the event. A great turnout for our annual family event.

The November meeting of the CCFCC Winnipeg Branch was held on November 8 hosted by Chef Gerry Tummillo. We were treated to a fine buffet featuring a variety of fantastic hot entrees and a cheese table by Saputo. The association welcomed Vien Salimbacod as a new member. Thank-you to Chef Gerry, Executive member Jared Lavallee and the staff at at Assiniboia Downs for a fine night.