Turning up the heat
Local high school culinary team takes home international title
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Not only were the Gordon Bell Brigades representing their school, city, and province, but four students travelled to Europe to showcase their culinary skills on an international stage at the base of the Eiffel Tower — during a heat wave in France.
The team — Avery Van Solkema, Yevhen Zinchenko, Matea Thiessen Unger, Cailyn Olshevski, and Adetooni Adegoke — added “national and international competition” to their end-of-school-year itineraries.
“It’s stressful (competing) but once cooking starts the stress dissipates,” said Adegoke, a Grade 8 student at Gordon Bell High School.
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Grade 8 student Adetooni Adegoke working the smoothie station in Montreal where the Gordon Bell students won their second national culinary competiton.
Adegoke couldn’t travel to Paris with her fellow Brigades, but she, and the team, travelled to Montreal, Que., in early June to compete in the Canadian national Kitchen Brigade competition as the only school from Manitoba, where their second consecutive first-place win secured their trip to Paris.
“(My favourite part) was becoming a family and spending time together,” Zinchenko said.
On competition day the team was given five minutes to decide what to cook, an hour and a half to make it, as well as a requirement to use a Canadian ingredient and a French one.
The four presented a carrot puree, olive Parmesan cheese spinach pesto, beurre monté sauce (French butter sauce), maple syrup seared veggies, and a pan seared cod as the protein.
It worked in Montreal, so they stuck with their strengths, Zinchenko explained.
Each student is part of the foods program offered at Gordon Bell through La Tablée des Chefs. Over the one to four years of cooking experience each student has, everyone honed in on a station to practice and do well for the competition.
The four are divided between starches, purees, proteins, and plating. Cleaning was a group effort, Olshevski added.
“The walking, eating, and sweating,” laughed Van Solkema when talking about highlights from the Paris trip.
“There were lots of fans,” laughed Olshevski, and not the cheerleading kind. Recently, France and other countries in Europe have logged record-breaking hot temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s.
The Winnipeg team, comprised of students from grades 8 to 12, cooked outside in the extreme heat during their week-long trip.
“(My favourite part) was bonding with the team and walking around Paris,” said Olshevski, the only Grade 12 student in the group.
Supplied photo
Gordon Bell students (from left) Cailyn Olshevski, Matea Thiessen Unger, Yevhen Zinchenko, and Avery Van Solkema pictured in front of the Eiffel Tower where they won an international culinary competition.
Another trip highlight was a workshop with a pastry chef at the Ritz Paris Hotel, Olshevski added.
“I enjoy creating from nothing,” she said. “It’s fun and rewarding.”
Olshevski plans to pursue an education in pastry after her graduation.
“It’s a big win for Winnipeg,” she said. “I’m proud of us all.”
The last thing the group said was how thankful they are for their instructor.
“I’m their cheerleader,” laughed Benita Luey Goertzen, human ecology teacher at Gordon Bell. Most of the team first joined the after-school program with encouragement from Luey Goertzen.
Despite the hot streak of success, the group doesn’t plan to return to competition next year. Zinchenko said being two-time national champions is amazing, but it’s time to let new students try.
“We’ll move on and make space.”