OCC culinary team’s next dish: cooking for a national title

Elizabeth Mendoza had a job to do: Bake an almond macaron, a cookie that typically takes chefs three days to make. The catch: She had less than two hours to do it, and in unfamiliar territory.

Mendoza and her four fellow members of the Orange Coast College Hot Food Team were crammed shoulder to shoulder and given 90 minutes to make an appetizer, salad, entrée and dessert as they pursued the championship of the American Culinary Federation’s annual Western Regional Student Team Competition last month in Las Vegas.

As Mendoza worked on her macaron as part of the team’s dessert, an apple-frangipane tart, the drastic time crunch caused her to modify the temperature in the oven and “keep a close eye on my macaron so the crust wouldn’t crack,” she said. “During a competition, there are so many adjustments you need to make.”

It didn’t help that the students were using another school’s kitchen, smaller than the one at Orange Coast.

“We have to learn how to use a kitchen we just walked into. It really taught us how to communicate and work closely,” team member Zackary Evans said.

The cookie didn’t come out the way Mendoza had hoped, but the team’s performance in the two-part contest March 20 to 21 at the College of Southern Nevada, Cheyenne, earned the Costa Mesa cookers the regional gold medal and a ticket to the federation’s national competition in August in Orlando, Fla.

“I’m proud of all the team members and their hard work,” coach Bill Barber said. “Placing first among stiff competition at regionals is a great accomplishment.”

Orange Coast faced off in the regionals against school teams from Washington, Utah, Hawaii, Colorado and Oregon after taking first place at the California state competition in San Francisco in February.

The teams demonstrated their food-preparation skills in Phase I of the regionals by butchering a fish and a chicken, deboning a chicken, cutting vegetables and creating a pastry cream, all in 80 minutes. This part was a relay-style contest in which each team member needed to finish his or her task before the next student could begin.

The teams then used the ingredients for Phase II’s four-course meal.

For the Orange Coast students, the most challenging recipe was their entrée, poulet sauté a la bourguignonne — sautéed chicken with fried bacon, onions, mushrooms, garlic and wine. The team went through several bottles of wine to find just the right flavor.

Overcoming such challenges have inspired many students on the team to become professional chefs. Some have already begun the pursuit.

“I have a job as a pastry chef in a hotel,” Mendoza said. “I know I wouldn’t have been able to do it without being on this team.”

The college’s culinary arts faculty recruits Orange Coast cooking students to join the Hot Food Team. The students are working to obtain an advanced certificate in culinary arts.

The national competition will pit Orange Coast against the Northeast, Southeast and Central regional champions.

“We’ve come such a long way,” Orange Coast student Annette Alvarado said. “It feels great to know we are representing the West when we go to nationals.”