Photo by Deb Jacques Chef Doug Ganhs, left, coaches Oakland Community College Student Culinary Team member Victor Llagas as he adds to a “garde manger” platter during a team practice March 3 at the Orchard Ridge Campus.

Regional competition
is March 26-28

By David Wallace
C & G Staff Writer

FARMINGTON HILLS — The newly minted state gold-medal winning culinary team calls the Oakland Community College Orchard Ridge Campus home — literally.

While the rest of the college enjoyed spring break last week, the five-member team worked in the Culinary Studies Institute to practice for a regional competition that gets under way March 26 in Indianapolis that will pit them against teams from Chicago, St. Louis and other midwestern sites.

Students enroll in the culinary team course at OCC and undergo tryouts to determine whether they will be on the team.

“And we spend the rest of our lives here,” joked Kaitlin Lamont, a team member from Rochester Hills, as she wrapped cucumber skin around a cylinder of asparagus mousse to create one tiny detail for a “garde manger” platter that is more art than food.

The team won the honor to join the regional competition at the American Culinary Federation State of Michigan Student Competition Feb. 21, when they had home-court advantage in a match against Schoolcraft College and the Art Institute of Michigan.

The competition has some of the trappings of sport. Friends and family come to support the teams, and “the adrenalin’s there, that’s for sure — especially when your biggest rival walks through the door,” said Bradley Roberts of Oxford.

That would be the Schoolcraft team, with which OCC has a civil rivalry, and OCC relished the victory more because of it.

“Yeah, it was nice,” said Valerie Naimi of West Bloomfield. Mino Yamaguchi of Novi and Victor Llagas of Livonia complete the OCC team, which chef Kevin Enright manages.

While the team members had a 90-minute time limit to heed during the competition — for which they were required to prepare a four-course hot meal, planned in advance — they had other concerns.

“I feel pressure from the judges, because they were master chefs. They know what’s going on,” said Naimi.

“You can’t hide anything from them,” said Roberts.

The judges included master chef and American Culinary Federation past President John Kinsella, Naples Ritz-Carleton Hotel master chef Derin Moore, master pastry chef Albert Imming of Chicago and executive chef Richard Potter of Cincinnati.

“Flavor was No. 1. They were looking for good flavors, good cooking techniques, proper cooking techniques — for example, if it’s a roasted item, has the item been basted, is it nice and golden-brown on the outside, is there still moisture in it after you cook it and slice it, and of course the overall flavor. They’re going to taste it,” said chef Doug Ganhs, a part-time team coach at OCC. “They’re looking at craftsmanship; knife cuts being perfect; slices being very neat and clean; their station, their work area, being very neat and clean; their appearance being, again, very professional.”

The meal’s courses also need to complement each other and make sense.

At the regional competition, the team will make the hot food again and a garde manger platter. They practiced making such an elaborate platter using seafood March 3.

The team put together a curling design utilizing colorful ingredients, such as lobster terrine. They topped it with a cracker shaped like a fish.

“I can’t draw, so I make food,” said Naimi.

The team members already work in the food industry, but joining the team betters their skill sets.

“You get exposed to a lot of other schools and what they’re doing and a lot of the new trends,” said Lamont. “It’s a good networking technique, as well.”

“I would say (we took the competition class) to push ourselves past what we normally would do,” said Roberts.

Naimi even put some of her new skills into practice once.

“One time we had to do terrines at work,” she said.

The team seems to have a healthy attitude about competing, in Indianapolis and elsewhere.

“I don’t want to go into a competition saying that we’re going to win. I just want to go in and do the best that we can do, because that’s all we can really ask of us at the moment. As long as we put out the best food possible on that day, I’m going to be completely satisfied, regardless of whether we get silver, gold or what happens,” said Lamont.

You can reach Staff Writer David Wallace at dwallace@candgnews.com or at (586) 498-1053.