Canadian Food Championships in Edmonton

Last week, Billy competed in the Canadian Food Championships (CFC) at Taste of Edmonton food festival. The whole event was organized by Events Edmonton and the CFC. It’s a year-long search to find Canada’s best cooks – amateur and professional – who battle each other in the kitchen.

Who will win? Flavour or technique? My bet was on flavour all week. If you are a cook with a built-in radar for complimentary flavours that’s the food I want to eat. I grew up in central Alberta in a town of 250 people and my community has these amazing town hall suppers made by the board (aka volunteer farming wives who know how to cook). Thus, I don’t turn my nose up at a casserole if it tastes delicious. But, I can still appreciate an artfully-plated dish… if it tastes divine too.

Billy’s category was Sandwich. There were twelve competitors for the first round that would be whittled down to five for the finals. Everyone had an hour to put their dish together and turn it in to be judged. I circled around kitchen stadium like a sneaky cheetah, carefully checking out the competition. Don’t worry! I didn’t give him any hints. I’m just snoopy.

The City TV crew was there filming all the action but I haven’t seen any of the footage on TV yet. This would have made me nervous while I was cooking but no one seemed to be phased by it.

Billy’s initial plan was to be the first to turn in his dish but things didn’t really work out that way.  He finished plating his sandwich and turned it in with one minute left on the clock. Later, the winners were announced at the main stage of Taste of Edmonton. Billy came in fourth of the top five finalists!

Flemish Steak Tartare Sandwich
by Jonatan Billiau
Inspired by Billy’s favourite Belgian sandwich – The Martino

The top five finalists had two days to prepare a sandwich recipe with a very specific required ingredient – cream soda pop. We searched the internet to find the Grizzly Paw’s Cream Soda Pop, the specific brand being used in the competition, but had no luck. So we bought some Jones cream soda and hoped it would have a similar taste to the pop he would have to use in the finals.

Cream soda’s main flavour is vanilla and it’s very condensed and sweet. His objective was to balance this ingredient with the perfect ratio of fats (cheese) and acid (lemon juice). Billy is great at finding flavours that match in random ingredients. He’s really studied up and experimented in the past two years and it shows.

On Friday, the finalists were all set up early and it seemed like everyone was bringing their ‘A’ game. It was a much quieter kitchen stadium compared to Wednesday’s round because everyone was very focused and creating unique plates. Billy got his sandwich in earlier this round and seemed pretty organized and calm the entire time. In fact, a pair of ladies mentioned to me that watching the competition live was completely different than seeing it on TV because everyone seemed so calm and collected.

After the judges were finished scoring the plates, they decided that they wanted to give some feedback to the competitors. Two our of five judges said they liked Billy’s sandwich the best but we still had to wait for the official announcement at 6. The scores for the finals are broken down like this: 40% of the score is from the first round scores and 60% is the final round. The first round scores were all very close so it looked like it was going to be a tight race for the trip to World’s in Kissimmee, Florida in November. Our friend mentioned that he heard both first and second place are eligible to go to the World Championships.

During the Sandwich battle, I was really impressed how the competitors continued to joke with each other and afterwords offered each other tasters of their creations and shook hands. I thought that the category had a sportsmanlike competitors and it was really fun to see them go head to head. One of the participating teams owns Jack’s Burger Shack in St. Albert, which I’ve been told has the best burgers in Metro Edmonton, possibly Alberta. They were so much fun to watch in the Sandwich category that I’ve decided I’m going up to St. Albert to experience a burger myself. Their milkshakes (uh, Helloooo Italian Stallion!) sound delicious too.

Triple Cream (Soda) & Brie Sandwich
By Jonatan Billiau
Inspired by my favourite Belgian sandwich, Brie, Honey, & Walnut

The final results came in on Friday at 6 pm. Billy came in second, just behind the Executive Chef of the Radisson Hotel in Edmonton. His sandwich was so good that it bumped up his score from fourth place to second place!

Time to start planning our adventure to World’s in Florida! Who’s coming with me to cheer him on?