Broadcasting, Culinary Students Make a Delicious Mix in Mushroom Battle

Could Canada's next famous television chef be a Fanshawe graduate?

Three of Fanshawe's Culinary students - Brock Skevington, Lindsay Mills, and Joey Casserly - made a strong case for themselves recently, taking second spot in the 2009 "Make it With Mushrooms" Student Chef Challenge, sponsored by Mushrooms Canada.

With help from Broadcasting students Gary Cook, Sonia Mortensen, Jeffery Malloch, Kykle Hamm, and Matt Lowe, the trio produced a video for the competition featuring their own unique menu: Fresh Mushroom Cheddar Burger with Sweet and Sour Shallots, Chipotle Mayo and Portabella Fries.

The contest challenged students from several Ontario colleges to prepare dishes that demonstrated and celebrated different types of Canadian mushrooms. The three chefs were chosen from their Cook Apprentice class based on recipes they submitted for the project. From there, they worked with their instructor, Patrick Hersey, to fine tune their recipes before collaborating with their partners from Broadcasting on a day-long video shoot.

Hersey says the competition was about more than just preparing a great menu.

"Being under pressure while on camera was a new thing for them," Hersey says of his aspiring cooks. "They really had to think about how they presented themselves - everything from making sure their uniforms looked absolutely perfect to the way they articulated when they were talking to the camera."

The production was a challenge for the video team too. Once the location for the video was selected, the team had to work out a plan for lighting, pre-production, shooting, and editing. They also had to make sure what they delivered was what the chefs were looking for.

"The opportunity to work with a client is a real asset," says Romy Goulem, who teaches video production in the School of Contemporary Media. "With a lot of their assignments, students are given a topic, but the creative is entirely up to them. With this one, a bit of the video design was given to them, but they had to take all of that information and come through with a product that was meant to please someone else, which is a good learning experience."

For their second place finish, the three chefs and the video team received a total of $1,000 and $400 respectively. Mushrooms Canada also gave $1,000 to Culinary Arts, which was then split between the two programs as a celebration of the project's collaborative nature.

The second place recipes are available on the Mushrooms Canada website at http://mushrooms.ca/recipes/recipe.aspx?ID=204.