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Top chefs go for gold

Olympic athletes teamed with chefs for fundraiser

Source: Toronto Star
Date: May 24, 2004
Author: Linda Barnard

Showdown at Whistler caps regional events

Olympic figure skater Kurt Browning may be hot stuff on the ice, but admits he's strictly an amateur in the kitchen.

Teamed with chef Mark McEwan of Bymark and North 44 for a $400-a-ticket Olympic athletes' fundraiser called Gold Medal Plates on Thursday night, he chose to step back and do the eating rather than get involved with menu planning.

A wise move for Browning, who describes his signature dish as pork chops with a can of mushroom soup dumped on top, stuck in the oven when the hockey game's on, then eaten during the third period.

The fundraiser focused on "inspirational pairings" of Olympic personalities and Toronto's top chefs trying to outdo each other in a battle for the gold by creating original recipes. In all, 14 chefs competed. Small plates of the signature dishes each created for the event - from gold-leaf flecked sushi, to braised pork belly with smoked foie gras - were prepared and served to 650 guests at food stations scattered around the Liberty Grand in Exhibition Place.

Guests wandered among stations, eating standing up while watching demonstrations of sports, from fencing to tae kwon do. They also had a chance to rub elbows with Olympic athletes and hopefuls and chat with the celebrity chefs as they worked.

At the end of the tasting, they were asked to vote to award gold, silver and bronze medals for their favourite dishes and to rank their top wines before going into a ballroom for dessert and entertainment.

The gold medal went to Anthony Walsh of Canoe, whose beef shank and morel ravioli nestled in a green sauce of wild leeks, laurel and crème fraiche drew raves.

McEwan took home the silver for his seared Georgian Bay pickerel atop a serving of fresh pea risotto with two sauces - a foamy foie gras and another of sweet corn. (McEwan was so pleased with how the dish turned out, he's added it to North 44's spring menu.)

Keith Froggett of Scaramouche captured bronze for his take on Arctic char in lobster consommé with chive blossom sabayon.

The gold medal-winning wine was Inniskillin Okanagan Cabernet Sauvignon.

Similar fundraisers with local celebrity chefs will be held in seven other Canadian cities, culminating in a final showdown in Whistler, B.C., in November as the top-rated chef from each city competes for the overall gold medal.

Gold Medal Plates organizers hope to raise about $500,000 for the Canadian Olympic committee's Excellence Fund, a program that helps elite athletes pay for training and support. An estimated $125,000 was raised at the Toronto event.

Olympic gold medal rower Marnie McBean inspired her culinary team, lead by Jamie Kennedy of Jamie Kennedy Kitchen, by showing them her medals as they prepared to serve wild rice hoppers (a kind of crepe) with curried Ontario vegetables and a soft pink rhubarb raita.

"The whole evening is about excellence; it's about gold medals, gold medal wines, gold medal foods and gold medal effort," said McBean.

She added the food-Olympic pairing is a natural because top chefs are much like elite athletes.

"We both understand commitment... and that's what Canada's athletes have done," she said, pausing to finish off her sample of Kennedy's dish. "I've always wanted to make winning look easy and the only way to do that is with excellent preparation."

Chef Susur Lee of Susur sized up the competition and scrapped his plan to make scallop cake with mustard seed and tomato jam and instead served perfectly rare chops carved from racks of tender spring lamb marinated for four days in curry, coconut and 15 spices, then pan seared and topped with a mango-mint puree.

"There's so many chefs here who are serving starch and ravioli and that makes it heavy," he said, explaining why he made the switch. "I imagined it would fit in with everything that's going on."

Canadian Idol judge Zack Werner, at the event with two of his fellow Idol judges, gave the lamb top marks.

"Suser's lamb chops are unbelievable, just ridiculous, wonderful," he enthused.

"Everything is dynamic. I just had the most perfect risotto," said Food Network's The Surreal Gourmet host, Bob Blumer. "They're doing everything à la minute, everything is as good as it is in the restaurants and that's rare for these kinds of events."

James Worrall, 89, Canadian International Olympic Committee member from 1967 to 1989 and a former Olympic hurdler, had high praise for the food at the event and the good cause it aided. But he gave one delicious dish, Liberty Entertainment Group chef Marc Thuet's buffalo tartare - spiced, chopped raw meat - on foie gras with Sevruga caviar and a quail egg, a wide berth.

In 1936, as a member of Canada's track team, he and a fellow hurdler headed into Berlin for lunch and tried steak tartare for the first - and last time. Worrall won't blame the tummy troubles that ensued for his ending up out of the medals. But he's not taking any chances.

"I've never eaten it since," he said.