Hail to the chefs

In what is becoming a near-regular occurrence, chefs from Skidmore’s Dining Services have won gold, this time at the 21st annual Tastes of the World Chef Culinary Competition, held June 7-12 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Skidmore joined UMass and Virginia Tech in capturing the gold medal. The prize, won by Eric DesRosiers, Stephen Fields, Ben Niese, and Paul Karlson, was the second gold that Skidmore has won this year, and the third since 2014.

Sanctioned by the American Culinary Federation, the event featured top culinarians from 21 colleges and universities across the nation and Canada, including Harvard, the University of Michigan, Penn State, the University of Saskatchewan, and UC Berkeley.

According to Ken Toong of UMass, Amherst, the theme of the conference—"The Future of Food and the Power of the Chef”—was designed to explore “our collective responsibility as chefs and operators, to provide our customers with food that is healthy, sustainable and delicious.” He said, “The Skidmore team did extremely well and exhibited a high level of professionalism and teamwork. Their dishes were nicely presented, using seasonal ingredients with great flavor. I am so proud of them.”

Skidmore’s team used Arctic char, local chicken, flap steak and local produce to create their dishes, and earned praise from the judges for creations that were “well balanced and well plated with good eye appeal.” The floor judge noted that the team worked very efficiently, which is critical when the pressure is on to be creative under a competition’s time constraints.

Mark Miller, director of Skidmore’s Dining Services, was thrilled by his colleagues’ latest achievement. He said, “Skidmore continues to raise the bar in culinary excellence. The culinary team is always looking to create new dishes that are professionally prepared and responsibly sourced and that taste great, for the enjoyment of our students, staff and summer-program guests.” He called the cooks’ latest medal “a wonderful accomplishment. We are so proud of the work that they do every day.”