RCA Announces Student Culinology® Competition Winners at Annual Luncheon in Dallas

For Immediate Release                                      Contact: Ericka Henderson (678) 303-2991  

ATLANTA (April 1, 2009)— 

The Research Chefs Association (RCA) announced the winners of its third annual Student Culinology® Competition on March 7th at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel, during the RCA Annual Luncheon.   The competition, supported by Competition Star Sponsor National Starch Food Innovation and Competition Ingredient Sponsors ButterBuds Food Ingredients, David Michael & Co., SupHerb Farms, and The Beef Checkoff, is designed to challenge and recognize the industry's young talent in the Culinology field – the blending of culinary arts and food science.
 
An enthusiastic student team from University of Cincinnati took first place honors, along with a $5,000 cash award and industry-wide recognition as rising stars in food product development.  Their award was presented by Agnes Jones, principal culinologist at National Starch Food Innovation, at the 2009 RCA Annual Luncheon, where nearly 500 food product development professionals gather each year to celebrate industry achievements. 

The winning team from UC was led by faculty advisor, Christopher Keegan, CEC, senior research chef at Cargill Flavor Systems, and team leader Christian A. Serrato, CC. Team members included Robert Coltrane, CC, John Parsons, CC, and Andrew Scholle, CC.

“Our hard work and strength of mind made this team successful. We portrayed determination by the way we efficiently executed our ‘Texas Prairie Duo’ gold standard. In the end we knew we had applied the best of ourselves from the beginning to the end. We would like to thank everyone who supported us throughout our research and we look forward to next year’s competition in Arizona,” says team leader Christian Serrato.

Their winning entry was a gourmet meal entitled Texas Prairie Duo.  The meal consisted of braised chuck flat beef strips smothered in a sweet and tangy sauce, accompanied by a medley of fire roasted vegetables.

A student team from the Johnson & Wales University- Providence placed in second, and Louisiana State University placed third. 

The competing teams each developed a frozen, restaurant quality gourmet meal for two for a fictional retail grocery channel, which included both the gold standard recipes and the corresponding product formulations.  The meal had to be inspired by Texan cuisine.  One week prior to the competition, each team shipped their pre-portioned, frozen meal items to the event location. On-site at the live competition in Dallas, teams prepared their fresh, gold standard menu items.

In a Culinology Match Test, competition judges compared each team’s reheated and plated frozen items against their corresponding freshly prepared items on the day of the event. The competition focused on various Culinology elements, such as flavor, aroma, texture, ingredient composition, presentation, and authenticity, among many other components.

RCA congratulates all student teams for their participation and healthy competitive spirit in this successful annual event.  For more information about the Student Culinology Competition or RCA’s Annual Conference and Culinology Expo, please visit www.culinology.org.

More information is available upon request by contacting Ericka Henderson at ehenderson@kellencompany.com.

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Founded in 1996, the RCA has rapidly grown to more than 2,000 members, including chefs, food scientists, technologists, writers, nutritionists, academicians, researchers, consultants, sales and marketing professionals, suppliers, co-packers, distributors and students.  RCA is the premier source of culinary and technical information for the food industry and is committed to the advancement of Culinology® –the blending of the culinary arts and food science.