OCC Culinary Team Wins Silver in American Culinary Federation Competition

The Oakland Community College Student Culinary Team won a silver medal in a competition sponsored by the American Culinary Federation in Muskegon on March 9.

The competition required the students to demonstrate a variety of skills, including creating Tourneé Potatoes, butchering chicken, filleting dover sole, rolling flam shells, sectioning oranges and preparing Rutabaga Julienne.

The cooking phase consisted of a four-course menu. The team was required to prepare a main course of Poulet Sauté Bercy with semolina polenta and green beans and carrots. The remainder of the courses were the team’s choice. The OCC culinarians settled on Poached Dover Sole and Lobster for the fish course, a Citrus Chevre Cheese Penna Cotta with Blood Oranges for the salad, and for dessert, Tropical Plantation – a tart, layered with coconut, bananas, and chocolate, along with a Passion Fruit Sorbet and Pineapple-Strawberry Geleé.

The team was coached by Chef Kevin Enright of Troy, a member of the OCC Culinary Studies Institute (CSI) faculty, and CSI graduate Amy Knoles of Flat Rock, currently with the Country Club of Detroit.

Student members of the team were Karen Hoffman of Oakland Township and Andrew Valentine of Waterford, both with the Orchard Lake Country Club; Steve Valenti of Troy, currently with the Country Club of Detroit; Rebecca Dibiki of Royal Oak, working at the Big Rock Chop House; and Robert Coran of Royal Oak, who is with the Townsend Hotel.

The OCC Culinary Studies Institute is Michigan’s premier hospitality school. The largest of the Institute’s programs, Culinary Arts, gives students a combination of classroom and hands-on experience. In addition to extensive time in the kitchen labs cooking and baking, students learn specialties such as ice carving and wine and spirits. Students participate in such special events as the Wassail Feast, and also operate the Ridgewood Café, the program’s restaurant located at the Orchard Ridge Campus.

Source: Oakland Community College press release