A Peach of a Win
30 March 2011By Brent T. Frei
The fifth-annual Student Culinology® Competition at RCA’s 2011 conference exemplified the blending of culinary art and food science.
The student team from Southwest Minnesota State University (SMSU) took first-place honors, along with a $5,000 cash award and industry-wide recognition as rising stars in food-product development, at the fifth-annual Student Culinology® Competition, March 3 during the Research Chefs Association’s (RCA) Annual Conference & Culinology® Expo at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. The award was presented at the 2011 RCA Annual Luncheon on March 5.
Each of the finalist teams representing six universities throughout North America shipped in advance a frozen Southern dessert concept featuring peaches, suitable for a family-style chain restaurant. On the day of competition, teams prepared their fresh, “gold standard” item, and in a Culinology® match test, competition judges compared each team’s plated, commercialized dessert to its corresponding freshly prepared dessert against such criteria as ingredient composition/authenticity, flavor/aroma, texture, presentation, professionalism, technical skills, safety and sanitation and overall similarity to the gold standard.
SMSU won with its entry of “Good as Grandma’s Peach Cobbler” (pictured). Johnson & Wales University, which defended its first-place win in 2010, took second prize this year with its “Peach de Résistance.”
Other teams competing were Louisiana State University, Mississippi State University, the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and the University of Minnesota. The six finalists were chosen from among several submissions this year.
SMSU’s team captain, KayLee Ryker, a senior Culinology® major, told her local newspaper, the Independent, that SMSU's entry was basic. “Some of the others had a 'wow' factor with them,” she’s quoted as saying. “One made a foam to go with a sponge cake, another used liquid nitrogen. With ours, we were more simple; we concentrated more on the flavors.” Ryker will work for Kerry Ingredients in Beloit, Wis., following graduation in May, according to the Independent.
The 2011 competition was supported by star sponsors Gum Products International, National Starch Food Innovation and Wawona Frozen Foods. Ingredient sponsors were ConAgra Mills, David Michael & Co. and SupHerb Farms.
Next year’s Student Culinology® Competition will be held at the 2012 RCA Conference & Culinology® Expo, March 21-24 at the Grand Hyatt in San Antonio, Texas. Additionally, RCA will introduce next year a Culinology® competition for professionals. For more information, visit www.culinology.org.
Photo: The winning entry from Southwest Minnesota State University, “Good as Grandma’s Peach Cobbler.”