The prize-winning dish in the Local Food Challenge was seared salmon over a barley risotto and a maple carrot puree with a honey garlic sauce and garnished with fried parsnips and charred leeks, prepared by Lincoln Academy and Bath Tech students Eleanor Nery and Gwen Weaver. (Photo courtesy Lincoln Academy)
Gwen Weaver (left) and Eleanor Nery compete in the Local Food Challenge at the University of Maines commercial kitchen. The two seniors, who study at both Lincoln Academy and Bath Regional Career and Technical Center, took first place. (Photo courtesy Lincoln Academy)
Lincoln Academy seniors Eleanor Nery and Gwen Weaver, who both study culinary arts at the Bath Regional Career and Technical Center, won a gold medal at this year’s Innovative Local Foods Competition, which took place on April 25 at the University of Maine in Orono.
The challenge was to create a meal with local ingredients in a market basket provided by local manufacturers and farms. Students were “challenged to conceptualize a complete dish from the displayed ingredients,” according to the instructions for the competition.
Each team produced a meal that included a cooked protein, a starch, one or more vegetables cooked or raw, and a sauce.
“From the ingredients displayed, Gwen and I created two identical dishes of a persillade-inspired seared salmon over a barley risotto and a maple carrot puree with a honey garlic sauce and garnished with fried parsnips and charred leeks,” said Nery. “We also drizzled a tomato chili oil around.”
Student teams were scored on the following criteria: professionalism (appearance, attitudes, time management, and cleanliness); cooking (usage of ingredients, technique, presentation, flavor, and textures); presentation (oral description of dish explanation of cooking approach, reasoning, and written description)
Ten teams of two entered the competition, and Weaver and Nery placed first. This is Nery’s second time entering this competition; last year she placed second.
Both students also took medals in the Maine SkillsUSA competition, where Nery won a silver medal in the baking and pastry category, and Weaver won a gold medal in the culinary category.
