LCB Orlando Competition Team Goes to ACF Regionals
February 15, 2011
•Le Cordon Bleu
•General, Orlando
• 0 Comments
In just a few short days, the competition team will be headed to Atlanta to participate in the American Culinary Federation (ACF) Southeast Regional Competition at the Regional Conference. The team earned the opportunity to compete in the SE Regional Competition by placing first and winning the gold medal at the State Competition held in September 2010 at the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Show. The team members, led by Certified Master Chef Klaus Friedenreich, who will be representing Le Cordon Bleu Orlando, are Martha Van Langen, Team Captain, Dean Holland, Niki Nikatos, Orbie Straily, and alternate Robert Bergadine. In addition, team members Stephanie Hagin and Jason Agin will accompany the team to assist in unloading and staging the food and equipment. The Le Cordon Bleu Orlando team will be competing against four other states to include Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Since the win at the State competition, the team has been diligently practicing their menu. There are a few additional requirements for the Regional competition versus the State. “We’re using virtually the same menu as the State competition, but we’ve made some nice adjustments to it”, said Chef Friedenreich. The appetizer course, led by Holland, has been updated to add a little more elegance. The entrée, led by Straily, which is the assigned dish for this year, will be unchanged, but they have added a little more color. The salad, led by Van Langen, and dessert, led by Nikatos, also has some small changes, but as Chef Friedenreich mentioned, “it’s the small changes that can make a huge difference”.
The team has been practicing daily, Monday through Saturday, for a minimum of 5 hours each day since the beginning of January. Most of what they have been working on is getting a system in place. The team has also had some great assistants, Billy Frame, Marcus Orr, and a few others, during their practice sessions to assist in gathering materials, washing dishes, etc. Even though washing dishes isn’t always glamorous, they do it with pride. That’s one of the great things about the students who are members of the competition team, “they are very dedicated, focused. Most have a job, and those that don’t have so much more time to hone their skills”, said Chef Friedenreich.
Their journey begins on Friday, Feb. 18. Their first order of business is to meet with the judges on Friday to ask any last minute questions, but most of the questions asked are not about the competition. Starting bright and early at 8am on Saturday, Feb. 19, the team will begin preparing their cold platter to be ready to display for the judges by 2pm. In this portion of the competition the entire team contributes. After the cold platter is complete, the students get a few hours to rest until the hot food competition the next day. On Sunday, Feb. 20, the teams begin around 8am again with the knife skills requirement. Following that, the teams will begin the hot food competition at 12pm with each team having a staggered start time of 30 minutes. The last day of the conference is Monday, Feb. 21, and with the competition portion complete, the team members have the opportunity to attend some great workshops, seminars, and network with industry professionals. The last event of the weekend is the banquet and awards ceremony held Monday evening to close the conference. If the team places first, then they will earn their spot in the competition at the ACF National Convention held in July, in Dallas, Texas. We wish the team the best of luck, and we know they will represent Orlando and Le Cordon Bleu well!
