Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Pierpont Culinary Wins State Championship



Members of the Pierpont Community & Technical Colleges’ Culinary Team competed in the state American Culinary Federation (ACF) WV Jr. Hot Food competition Monday, and earned a berth to the ACF Northeast Regional to be held in Boston, MA in February 2009.
Amanda Emerson, Ted Hastings, Joe White, Kellie Smith, Sarabeth Cox (alternate), Kristina Baker (alternate), and Coach Jay Mahoney, CEC went head-to-head with Marshall Community & Technical College in a one-day dual competition held in Beckley.
During Phase I of the competition teams competed in an 80 minute timed skills relay. Individually, the competitors performed one of four skills. Ted Hastings began the skills with precision vegetable cuts. He was followed by Kellie Smith who fabricated a whole chicken, and Joe White who filleted a Dover Sole. Amanda Emerson anchored the team by finishing under the 80 minute mark with her pastry skills.
First time team member, freshman Kellie Smith said, “At first I was nervous, but excited, and after the event it felt really good to know that our hard work had paid off. My teammates were really supportive, and helped me to keep my spirits up. The experience and energy of the event was really great.”
Phase II the team prepared a four course meal for four people. The menu included: the prescribed classical dish Paupiettes de Sole a la Trouvillaise; second course Butternut Squash & Goat Cheese Salad with Autumn Apple Vinaigrette; third course Roasted Saddle of Rabbit, Whipped Potatoes, Tourne Vegetable and Truffle Sauce; dessert Nutty Buckwheat Cake with White Chocolate-Mascarpone Mousse. The four person team had to prepare and serve the entire meal in 90 minutes.
The highly acclaimed judging panel for the event included two Master Chefs: Peter Timmins and John Johnstone and the former US Culinary Olympic Team Captain Keith Coughenour, CEC. Following the competition Kellie Smith said, “I liked the judges’ critique. They identified what I could improve upon. The judges showed me a technique that will make fabricating my chicken so much easier.”
Team Coach Jay Mahoney said, “This is an opportunity for the students to perform in an environment very similar to the Iron Chef show seen on Food Network. It also gives a new perspective for the definition of teamwork. I couldn’t be more proud of their efforts, now we’ll have elevate and perfect our dishes to compete at a regional level in Boston.”
Program Coordinator, Brian A. Floyd, CEC said, “It is a great testament to the teams’ effort. The students have been working very hard, and Jay Mahoney is just such an invaluable asset to our program.” The Pierpont Culinary Arts and Pastry & Baking Arts programs both received national accreditation earlier this year through the American Culinary Federation Accrediting Commission.









Team Members (l to r)Amanda Emerson, Joe White, Kristina Baker, Kellie Smith, Ted Hastings, Sarabeth Cox. Chef Mahoney pictured to right.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Pierpont Culinary Students Riding That Train

Pierpont students and chef instructor Jay Mahoney join the West Virginia ACF chapter for local fundraiser. Eight students from PC&TC cooked on the New River Train Excursion from Huntington, WV to Hinton, WV over the 24th and 25th of October. Over eleven hundred folks were taxied by 28 assorted railroad cars comprised from all over the country. Staffed by a variety of folks from abroad as well as locally. The 16 hour trip followed the CSX line traveling up the New River Gorge stopping in Hinton for a stroll through the street fair in celebration for the event. Culinary students from Marshall University, Mountain State University, Carver Career Center and Pierpont Community & Technical College joined together with ACF West Virginia chapter members to prepare the culinary delights for many of the travelers. PC&TC students involved were: David Carson, Ashley Gill, Rachael Harris, Joseph Woods, Kenny Poling, Jessica Dash, Lucinda Vance and Michael Cottingham.




Feast from the Fields

Chef Mahoney was recently featured as a guest chef in the "Feast from the Fields," dinner hosted by Gourmet on the Gorge.

Joy Marr, owner of Gourmet on the Gorge, has been living in West Virginia for the past 30 years as a professional outdoors woman, a caterer, innkeeper, and culinary tour guide. She has been working and cooking in the outdoors professionally for over 25 years. Her passion, enthusiasm, and love of the active lifestyle is evident in her fun and flavorful cooking, which explores the regional cuisines of Italy, Mexico and other far reaches as well as Appalachia and traditional Southern fare ~ E.W. Massey~

The menu started with a canapé created by guest Chef Jay Mahoney; just smoked WV trout served on a bit of toast with mustard aioli and sweet onion relish, alongside was the marinated goat milk Feta from farmers Darlene and Joe. These were served with a bright Riesling and a sturdy Goat du Rhone red (yes, we mean the pun!) down by the pond just before sunset.

Chef Mahoney's students at the Pierpont C&TC Culinary Program generously donated the pancetta, made from WV pigs, that we used in the sweet-n-sour dressing.

Read more about this really cool event...

Bridges International 10th Anniversary Celebration

First year students: Joe Woods, David Pyles, Jessica Dash, Dave Carson, and Blayze Haught (not pictured) participated in a catered event celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Bridges International.
Bridges is a non-profit organization that supports and encourages missionaries around the globe. Bridges President, Thomas Aitken said, "This was one of our most successful events. The food was wonderful."

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Viewing Party a lot of Fun

About 20 students, faculty, and friends showed up to watch the Food Network debut of Kenny Poling and Lucina Vance (1st year Culinary and Pastry & Baking students). The crowd cheered when they first caught a glimpse of their classmates on the big screen TV in the Falcon Center.

Everyone watched intently to see if they could make dinner "possible" for approximately 500 people. The menu consisted of Italian and Greek favorites selected by the mother of Michael Symon, the show's star.

Kenny spent most his day making the apple crumb dessert. Lucinda helped make some of the 600 meatballs needed for the day. Lucinda said, "It was very exciting, because the chef (Michael Symon) was literally one foot away from me, and Marc Summers was in the production crew." Kenny said, "I'll never get that experience again. It was once in a lifetime, and I'm quite excited it got to happen."

You can learn more about the new Food Network "stars" by clicking on the What's on the Menu section of this blog and viewing the WBOY story.

Congrats to Kenny & Lucinda!

Friday, September 5, 2008

2008-09 Culinary Team Named

Congratulations, to the 2008-09 Pierpont Culinary Team. Tryouts were held Friday, September 5th and the following students have been selected for this year's team: Ted Hastings, Amanda Emerson, Joseph White, Kellie Smith, Sara Beth Cox (alternate), and coach- Chef Jay Mahoney, CEC.

The team will immediately begin training for the state competition, to be held at Mountain State University on Monday, November 10th. The winner of the state competition will go on to represent West Virginia at the American Culinary Federation Northeast Regional Conference to be held in Boston, MA February 7-9, 2009.
Good luck to each of the competitors on their quest toward a national championship.






Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Four Students to Appear in Dinner: Impossible

Four students in Pierpont's Culinary and Pastry & Baking programs will appear in an up-coming Dinner: Impossible television program to be aired 10pm September 10, 2008.

Kenny Poling and Brooke Lafferty (Culinary Arts), Lucinda Vance and Tashina Spring (Pastry & Baking) are first year students who have been accepted to Pierpont's selective enrollment programs. All four students are from Taylor County's ProStart program.

The group participated with Food Network's Michael Symon in Dinner: Impossible episode IE0504. Mother's Day Madness sponsored by Teleflora Flowers was filmed at the International Mother's Day Shrine in Grafton, WV.

The event was a Mother's Day picnic for 150 Mothers and their families. Approximately 500 people attended the event, and the students were among those who helped to pull off the mission to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Mother's Day.

Read more at this link to the Food Network:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ie/episode/0,3151,FOOD_28496_59321,00.html