Braised beef helped a local chef raise the St. John’s Gold Medal Plates championship plate on Oct. 20.
Nick Jewczyk of The Fifth Ticket captured the top overall prize at the St. John’s Convention Centre besting Maurizio Modica of the St. John’s Fish Exchange and The Reluctant Chef’s Jeremiah Stafford.
With several events held across the country, Gold Medal Plates is intendeded to celebrate Canada’s culinary excellence whiler also raising money for Canada’s Olympic athletes.
Jewczyk’s dish, a braised beef cheek presented on lightly fermented sauerkraut made from Brussels sprouts, topped with onion foam and half a teaspoonful of grainy mustard, accompanied by a black garlic demi-glace, a thumb-sized slice of smoked beef tongue, tuna — not as a piece of fish, but as dabs of a tonnato sauce, yellow squash purée and translucent potato crisps wowed the judges.
It was served with brown ale called Alli’s Big Brown Ale from the Split Rock Brewing Co. in Twillingate.
Jewczyk will travel to Kelowna in February to participate in the Gold Medal Plates finale.
It is dishes like these — and award-winning wine pairings — available throughout the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, that are celebrated each year at Gold Medal Plates St. John’s.
“We have one of the best culinary scenes in the country,’’ Scott Giannou, chairman of Gold Medal Plates St. John’s said, a position he has held since its inception nine years ago.
“When you have Jeremy Charles and others — along with up and coming stars that were in the competition this year — they are the next stars on the national scene. This has to be good for the industry and for consumers when we go out to dine,’’ he added.
“We are known for it,” he said.
Giannou said consumers benefit, no matter if they are in St. John’s or communities anywhere across the province as the culinary scene here has emerged as a go-to place.
And the more the chef’s compete, bringing their kitchen teams with them from their respective establishments; it only enhances their abilities and in turn makes for a better dining venue for consumers to enjoy.
“When Roary McPherson, a seasoned vet, came in, his goal was to bring new chefs in to compete and I think it was the most new chefs we have had,’’ he said.
“The chef is the captain of the team, but it takes an entire group to make it happen.”
In addition to the award-winning food, the 350 people who attended the sold-out fundraising event got to sample the Norman Hardy 2015 Reisling, that was chosen as the best in show wine.
A Tawse 2013 Quarry Road Chardonnay garnered second place and Gaspereau’s 2016 Riesling in third followed this top prize.
Silver Medal dish
Modica’s silver medal dish was built around scallops, pan-seared and crusted covered with a powder made from porcini and pea shoots.
Its presentation saw it sit atop a clever sauce made by puréeing some of the scallop’s less familiar anatomical features (the bits around the adductor muscle), seasoned with garlic and herbs.
The side elements to the dish included swollen gnocchi, a flavourful ragout of pulled pork belly and carrot brunoise. It was decorated with a real scallop shell dusted with beet powder and pea shoot powder and garnished it with pea shoots, strips of dried porcini and a little hank of deep fried carrot threads.
His wine choice was another Nova Scotian, the sparkling Selkie Rosé from Jost Vineyards.
Bronze Medal dish
Stafford’s bronze medal winning dish also featured scallops.
Its presentation had the dish curled around one side of the plate, posed on a stripe of scallop-caramel jus.
Scallops were featured twice more on the plate — as crunchy, very flavourful scallops — and as a single, whole beauty, gently cooked sous-vide sitting on a thin slice of pressed pork belly. Dots of pungent tomato jam, quarters of tangy cherry tomato and crispy, semi-circular tomato tuiles accompanied the dish, as did two dabs of celeriac purée and a dash of gooseberry gastrique. The final garnish was done with wild chickweed and tiny wood sorrel leaves.
Stafford paired his creation with a wine from Nova Scotia — the refreshing, acidic 2016 Riesling from Gaspereau Vineyards in the Annapolis Valley.
Gold Medal Plates (GMP) is the ultimate celebration of Canadian Excellence in cuisine, wine, the arts and athletic achievement.
Celebrated in 11 cities across Canada in 2017, GMP features the premier chefs in each city in a competition to crown a gold, silver and bronze medal culinary team, and subsequently nationwide at the Canadian Culinary Championships.
Funding athletes
“We are happy where we finished off this year in terms of fundraising for as Adam (Van Koeverden) said supporting these ‘underfunded Olympic athletes,’” Giannou said.
“There is a good corporate buy-in and the support is required by us for them.”
Giannou said it is not easy to fundraise these days because of the economic climate, but he said you wouldn’t know it by the support shown by those attending the St. John’s event.
And add to that the availability of Olympic athletes telling their stories and the musical performers, all mingling with guests and helping raise funds for other athletes makes the event unique and special.
“I am always humbled by people coming up at the end of the night saying this is their favourite night of the year,’’ Giannou said
“They say ‘What a great night they had,’” he added.
