Simsbury Chef to Judge UConn's Annual Culinary Olympics

STORRS, CT – It's that time again time, when chefs at the University of Connecticut choose their spatulas and duel at cooking stations 10 paces away from each other.

UConn’s Department of Dining Services department will conduct its 17th annual Culinary Olympics on Tuesday, including a recipe contest, presentations on decorating cakes and pastries, and a hands-on demonstration of making homemade charcuterie.

The Culinary Olympics also includes its popular annual “Boiling Point” competition, a high-energy contest patterned on shows like “Iron Chef America” and “Chopped.”

Teams of three UConn chefs representing different dining facilities will compete in tightly timed cooking competitions using a box of mystery ingredients and a few minor items from the pantry. Winners will be selected based on creativity, cooking techniques, use of the mystery ingredients, and the taste and textures of their creations.

The judges are novelist Rand Richards Cooper, a longtime New York Times food critic and travel writer; Christopher Prosperi, chef-owner of MetroBis Restaurant in Simsbury; Marc Hussey, Cigna’s corporate food service manager; and Sarah Gold, a food writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and elsewhere.

The events start at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 10, and the Boiling Point competition begins at 12:30 p.m. The events run through about 4:45 p.m.

All events take place in the Rome Commons Ballroom, South Campus, Storrs. Click here for map and directions, or find it on UConn map at http://maps.uconn.edu/

The full schedule, recipe contest submissions, full list of judges, and other details are attached. They also can be found byclicking here or visiting http://s.uconn.edu/3gl

Photo Credit: UConn