Chelsi Wright of Vilseck team No. 1 prepares her team's entree of chicken roulade stuffed with ham, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes at the 2015 DODDS-Europe Culinary Faire held at Kaiserslautern High School on Feb. 25, 2015. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Chelsi Wright of Vilseck team No. 1 prepares her team's entree of chicken roulade stuffed with ham, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes at the 2015 DODDS-Europe Culinary Faire held at Kaiserslautern High School on Feb. 25, 2015. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Chef D.L. West, a judge at this year's DODDS-Europe Culinary Faire, discusses preparation with Naples' Aaron Capps at Kaiserslautern High School on Feb. 25, 2015. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Vilseck Team No. 1's Bianca Walker puts final touches on her team's dessert of strawberry-banana cream pie at the 2015 DODDS-Europe Culinary Faire held at Kaiserslautern High School on Feb. 25, 2015. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Ramstein's Jessica Richardson adds whipped cream to her team's lime custard dessert at the 2015 DODDS-Europe Culinary Faire held at Kaiserslautern High School on Feb. 25, 2015. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Ramstein's starter at the DODDS-Europe Culinary Faire was pork rillette with truffle oil, duck fat, lardons and quail egg. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Apple pie tacos dessert as prepared by Vilseck team No. 2 at the 2015 DODDS-Europe Culinary Faire held at Kaiserslautern High School on Feb. 25, 2015. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Judges Jan Parker, Julie Rylander and D.L. West, from left, discuss Ramstein High School's entries at the 2015 DODDS-Europe Culinary Faire held at Kaiserslautern High School on Feb. 25, 2015. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Naples' Gabriel Carrillo checks the zucchini blossoms that top his teams saffron risotto appetizer at the DODDS-Europe Culinary Faire held at Kaiserslautern High School on Feb. 25, 2015. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Kaiserslautern's Tara Gentz and Quatia Thompson cut chicken as Jacob Caballero and Stephen Richardson slice vegetables as they show their knife skills at the 2015 DODDS-Europe Culinary Faire held at Kaiserslautern High School on Feb. 25, 2015. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Kaiserslautern's entree of Steak au Poivre with sweet potato chips and Brussel sprouts with a red pomegranate vinaigrette. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Wiesbaden's Eric Clark and Jackie Renzi put the finishng touches on their team's entree of saut?ed pork and crispy salmon with pickled kale and romanesco, polenta cake, bell peppers and a rosemary honey balsamic glaze at the 2015 DODDS-Europe Culinary Faire held at Kaiserslautern High School on Feb. 25, 2015. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Jo Thibodeau of Vilseck's team No. 2 presents her team's dishes of Buffalo chicken with bleu cheese mousse, beef tenderloin with garlic parmesan risotto and apple pie tacos at the 2015 DODDS-Europe Culinary Faire held at Kaiserslautern High School, on Feb. 25, 2015. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Pan-fried catfish and sweet potato chips weren’t the only things heating up at the DODDS-Europe Culinary Faire this week.
The student chefs from across Department of Defense Dependents Schools Europe say the annual cooking competition is a pressure cooker.
Maintaining a steady hand while trying to neatly hollow out Brussels sprout heads or cut lime peels into paper-thin garnish strips as the clock ticks and eagle-eyed judges watch is no easy task.
“I was stressed out,” said Chelsi Wright, who stepped in for a sick teammate to prepare the stuffed chicken roulade with prosciutto, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes for one of two teams Vilseck sent to the event. “It was my first time cooking that dish.”
Six teams of four students (plus one alternate) from five schools battled on Wednesday in a room set up with multiple kitchens at Kaiserslautern Middle School. The pupils are all enrolled in either their first or second year of culinary arts, a DODDS elective that falls under career technical studies. Two teams also competed in restaurant management.
In the culinary contest, Kaiserslautern High School took first place, Ramstein was second, and Wiesbaden was third. Ramstein won the management competition, and Kaiserslautern was second.
The top two winning culinary teams get the opportunity to compete in the National ProStart Invitational in April at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., provided they raise their own funds to attend. A judge from the Culinary Institute of America said members of the top three winning teams in the culinary arts and management competitions would be awarded scholarship money to attend the renowned culinary school in Hyde Park, N.Y.
In the culinary contest, the DODDS teams had one hour to prepare three dishes — appetizer, entrée and dessert. Working on a $75 budget, they designed their own menus and carried in their own ingredients. Students said they devoted hours to perfecting the dishes in the prescribed time, working through lunch, after school, and into the evening hours in the weeks preceding the competition.
Team members are allowed to refer to recipe notecards but usually don’t need to. “We practice so much that we don’t need them,” said Triston Shelley, the senior team captain for Ramstein. “We know our recipe inside and out. We know what we need to do.”
Teams could pre-measure spices and liquids but couldn’t cut up any food beforehand. They were allowed to prepare only two things in advance: stock and clarified butter.
The oven was off-limits, a rule that required some creativity, particularly in the dessert department.
The Naples’ squad of Gabriel Carrillo, Kayli Rembert, Aaron Capps and Jonathen Wheeler fried balls of dough mixed with blueberries to make “blueberry drops,” garnished with raspberry sauce and homemade whipped cream. “We were just searching for desserts that didn’t require an oven,” Rembert said.
Their creation pleased the sweet tooth of the judges, a group of experienced chefs, some with military ties. “The blueberry fritters were a big hit with the judges,” said Jacqui Pressinger of the Culinary Institute of America.
Pressinger gave high marks to the students.
“I’ve seen a lot of talent. I’m very impressed that these students are doing so well. I would love to see these students continue their studies at CIA.”
Ramstein senior Jessica Richardson said she plans to continue in the field. “There’s so many opportunities, because everybody needs to eat and not everybody can cook, so they go out, they eat and I get paid,” she said.
The Ramstein team’s designated “dessert girl,” Richardson made a lime tartlet with a graham cracker coconut crust. A special ingredient in the lime custard allowed it to set without baking. “Iota carrageenan,” Richardson said. “It’s like gelatin, except it’s very sweet and it comes from seaweed. We researched it. It was a nice adventure trying to find that ingredient.”
While the taste of the final product is important, portion size, presentation, proper sanitation and communication among team members are also among the categories judged.
Complex or fancy isn’t always best.
“When you judge, you judge by the standard,” said judge Doug Humphrey, an Army staff sergeant from Vilseck who works in food service. “I had a chef teach me he’d rather have three things perfect than five things halfway. Simple doesn’t matter. Do they do simple to the standard?”
