Saskatchewan people may be known for growing good food, but a group of the province’s chefs wants the world to know they can cook it too.
The Saskatchewan culinary team was formed just more than a year ago to showcase the province’s products and talent. The team is gearing up for its first international competition next fall in Switzerland.
But to get there, it needs money. What better way to raise it than by cooking? Last August, the team catered a dinner for the annual premiers’ conference in Saskatoon. More recently, members prepared a beef tenderloin banquet at the Saskatchewan Food and Wine Festival in Moose Jaw.
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Team captain Trent Brears, chef at the legislative building in Regina, said the team needs between $80,000 and $100,000 to finance two weeks of competition in Switzerland.
“We’re doing lots of little things to raise the money,” he said. “A lot of money has come through local catering.”
Some sponsors, such as Dairyworld, have contributed money and product.
One of the team’s fundraisers is coming up at Canadian Western Agribition in Regina Nov. 22-29. Throughout the week, in conjunction with Saskatchewan Agriculture, it will have cooking demonstrations in the lifestyles exhibit area.
Brears said that is a highlight for team members.
“You get to meet the actual Saskatchewan producers themselves,” he said.
About 95 percent of the products used by the team are grown in Saskatchewan: bison, wild boar, elk, beef, pork, poultry, and even the wild rice from the province’s north.
At a recent competition in Quebec, the team planned to prepare a three-course meal including Dief-enbaker steelhead (a trout from Lake Diefenbaker), fallow deer and saskatoon berries.
At the same competition last year, the Quebec team beat the newly formed Saskatchewan team by one point. But Brears doesn’t hold a grudge.
“Chefs in their way are very competitive,” he said before leaving for Quebec. “(The older chefs) have a reputation for being arrogant and ignorant. Now the younger generation sees competition as more of a learning experience. It’s a benefit to me and my customers.”
Team Saskatchewan includes Brears, Chris Diana of Diana’s Family Restaurant (formerly of the Hotel Saskatchewan) in Regina, Vincent Lapointe of the Saskatoon Travelodge and Lee Helman, an instructor with the Culinary Arts Foundation, also in Saskatoon.
The team is managed by former Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (Kelsey campus) instructor Ed Rodgers. There are also several alternate chefs who act as back-up if a team member is unavailable.
Brears said the team was selected based on past success. Each province has an annual culinary salon that showcases particular talents.
“I’ve been tracking records for about 10 years,” he said. “We narrowed it down to a five-man team, but Team Canada just swiped our pastry chef.”
That puts the pastry onus on Helman, but he isn’t worried. Pastry, which Brears describes as “something of a dying art in Canada,” is where Helman started.
“Desserts are like a science,” he said. “Practice makes perfect and we’ve had quite a few dry runs.”
Each has a speciality
Brears and Diana look after the main course, while Lapointe is in charge of the appetizers.
“I’ve been competing about 12 years,” Lapointe said. “I’m doing it for myself but also to help put Saskatchewan chefs on the map. (Others) don’t think there’s many of them here.
“It’s important to the industry that we get across that we have a lot of quality product and people qualified to prepare quality cuisine.”
Team members have competed within Canada, but they are anxious to show the rest of the world what they can do.
“The rest of the world doesn’t know us,” Helman said. “My main goal is to make a name for our province and let people know that we are a team to be reckoned with in the future.”
Brears added the judges like to see new and innovative ways of preparing food. Team Saskatchewan thinks it can do that with home-grown products.
