OCC culinary team moves on to national competition

Orange Coast College swept a regional culinary competition and will face off at nationals over the summer.

OCC’s culinary team won the American Culinary Federation’s Western Region Student Team Championship March 12 to 14 in Sparks, Nev., making it the seventh time the Costa Mesa school has taken the competition.

The team will advance to the national competition in Florida in July. The school last won the national competition in 2005.

The team is made up of five students — Molly Grundy, Ciara Crivello, James Angotti, Aric Mattson and Jillian Schnaebele — and is led by coach Bill Barber.

“The team worked hard and had to regroup quickly after the state competition in January,” Barber said in a prepared statement. “We only had about six weeks to work out the details for the cold-food platter and our menu. There were many aspects that needed refining, but the team rose to the challenge.”

The team was judged on its cold-food presentation, skills and cooking. The students prepared four portions of a fish starter, salad and dessert of their choice, as well as a required entrée: suprême de volaille a l’écarlate, a classical chicken dish.

— Britney Barnes

Twitter: @BritneyJBarnes