Chef cooks his way to the top
Posted By Larissa Barlow
Posted 1 year ago
By Larissa Barlow
Larissa@thecrag.ca
Banff Centre sous-chef Jeffrey Merrin cooked his way to the top in the national Copper Skillet competition in Toronto earlier this month.
He’s now going to face chefs from around the world at the end of March in the International Chef of the Year competition hosted by the International Association of Conference Centers.
Merrin – a 10-year veteran of the industry who has been with The Banff Centre for two years – defeated chefs from four other conference centres to win the coveted prize.
The competition is an intense battle where chefs get a mystery basket of ingredients and just one pot, one burner and one skillet. For chefs that are used to having a whole arsenal of cookware at their disposal and around six to eight burners, it presents a real challenge.
To top it off, they’re given just 15 minutes to prepare a menu and 30 minutes to cook it.
The format will be the same at the international level.
“It’s different because we don’t have all the things you normally have in a kitchen,” Merrin said. “There was a little bit of pressure for sure.”
Also putting on the pressure was The Banff Centre’s reputation. The centre won last year’s national competition when sous-chef Paul Dokmanovic took the top prize.
“I wanted to win just to keep it in The Banff Centre,” he said.
Merrin’s winning meal was seared chicken thigh with cannelloni beans and tomatoes, seared king oyster mushrooms with sautéed yam, fennel, leek, zucchini, red pepper and yellow pepper with tomato petals.
“I was worried I wasn’t going to cook the chicken all the way through,” he said, adding with a laugh, “You don’t want to give the judges salmonella.”
With The Banff Centre winning two years in a row, “it’ll be interesting to see if any rivalries start up with the other conference centres.”
The focus right now though is on the international competition. Merrin will be off to Atlanta, Georgia to compete against chefs from around the world.
“It would be nice to win this year but it’s a lot more difficult. The competition is a bit more tight, but I hope I do well,” he said.
In the end, it’s all about bragging rights, and getting a copper skillet to take home as the prize. And, it’s about having fun, despite the pressure to do well.
“It’s a serious competition, but it’s a lot of fun,” he said. “We have a good time.”
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