(l-r) chefs Brandon Szocs, The Banff Centre, and Ryan Beavais, NAV Centre.
Following a competitive one-hour challenge, Brandon Szocs of Banff Centre and Ryan Beauvais of NAV CENTRE, won the Senior and Junior Canadian Chapter Cook-Off categories respectively, of the IACC’s global Copper Skillet culinary competition.
Beauvais won the judges’ votes with a dish of pan-seared duck breast, escargot and mushroom risotto, enoki and scallion salad, and blistered cherry tomatoes. Senior chef champion Szocs wowed the panel with pan-seared duck and skirt steak tartar, root vegetables hash with wild mushrooms, and fennel, baby sorrel and yellow been salad.
Szocs and Beauvais now advance to stage two of the competition, the Americas Chapter, taking place in Chicago in February next year.
Nine chefs from IACC member properties across Canada gathered at Vantage Venues, an IACC certified venue in Toronto, on November 15, 2017 to compete for the coveted awards. The chefs were presented with basic pantry items along with a “mystery basket” of proteins and other fresh, dairy and grocery items. They were given 30-minutes to prepare, create, and present their creations to the judges.
IACC’s CEO, Mark Cooper commented; “The Copper Skillet competition is important opportunity for us to celebrate the exceptional culinary expertise in the conference and meetings arena across the globe; we congratulate Brandon and Ryan, and wish them all the best for the second stage.”
Winners of stage two, the Americas Chapter, will go on to compete against the winners of the Europe and Australia Asia Pacific chapters at the competition final which takes place in April in Philadelphia.
The Copper Skillet competition was introduced in 2004 to highlight the artistry and skill of the best chefs from IACC-member conference venues around the world and give recognition to their contributions to the shared goal of providing an outstanding conference venue experience.
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