This was the second time that a J&W team took first place in this competition designed to challenge and recognize the industry's young talent in the Culinology® field—the blending of culinary arts and food science. Johnson & Wales took the 2008 competition in Seattle with its “Smokin’ Cod,” which featured Walla Walla onion-glazed Pacific cod with smoked-tomato succotash. This year’s team won with its vegetarian “Southwestern Black & Blue,” a blue-corn tortilla stuffed with black-bean/quinoa filling and served with chipotle-roasted potatoes, succotash, roasted-red-pepper sauce and chimichurri sauce.

A student team from the University of Cincinnati, which won last year’s competition with its Texas Prairie Duo consisting of braised chuck flat beef strips smothered in a sweet and tangy sauce and accompanied by a medley of fire-roasted vegetables, placed second this year with its Enchiladas Tofolé, and the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, placed third with its Calabaza and Black Bean Crepes. (The University of Guelph was the competition’s first international participant, according to Tim Kline, director of education at Atlanta-based RCA.)

Among the record number of student teams from across North America that responded to RCA’s initial request for proposal, six were deemed finalist-worthy and chosen to compete in Phoenix. Other teams competing this year were Mississippi State University with a Black Bean Tamale with a Spicy Mole; Clemson University with a South by Southwest Meatless Loaf; and Kansas State University with a Two-Bean Blue Masa Tamale Dinner.

The competing teams each developed a frozen, restaurant-quality gourmet meal for two for a fictional retail-grocery channel, which included both the gold-standard recipes and the corresponding product formulations. The meal had to be vegetarian, inspired by Southwestern cuisine and include sponsors’ products. One week prior to the competition, each team shipped its pre-portioned, frozen meal items to the event location. Teams prepared their fresh, gold-standard menu items on-site in Phoenix.

In a Culinology® match test, competition judges compared each team’s reheated and plated frozen item against its corresponding freshly prepared item; 25% of the score derived from how closely the gold standard and rethermalized entrées matched. Judging also focused on various other Culinology® elements such as flavor, aroma, texture, ingredient composition, presentation and authenticity. This year’s onsite judges were Michael Gunn of The Schwan Food Company; Eric Sparks, CEC, of Park 100 Foods, Inc.; Nick Spinelli, Jr., CEC, of Kraft Foods, Inc.; Kurt Struwe of Southwest Minnesota State University; and Susana Tolini of Kayem Foods, Inc.

The 2010 competition was supported by star sponsors Millennium Foods/N.K. Hurst and National Starch Food Innovation. Ingredient sponsors were David Michael & Co. and SupHerb Farms.

Next year’s Student Culinology® Competition will be held at the 2011 RCA Conference & Culinology® Expo, March 2-5 at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta. For more information, visit www.culinology.org.

Photo captions
The rethermalized entry (l.) of Johnson & Wales University, “Southwest Black & Blue,” next to the gold standard prepared during the live competition in Phoenix, with retail product packaging also developed by students.

(On the CAFÉ home page) The winning student team from Johnson & Wales University, Providence (l. to r.): Sarah Gouse, Daniel Marciani, Eric Minnich, Joo Sang "Jenna" Jeong,  Lynn Tripp (advisor and associate professor) and Russ Zito (associate professor). Not pictured: Suzanne Vieira, MS, RD, LDN, director and chair of Johnson & Wales’ culinary-nutrition degree program.