Competition cooks up with six chickens, six finalists

by Marcella Ortega

Daily Lobo

UNM is cooking this year - literally.

The National Association of College and University Food Services will hold the semifinals of the Culinary Challenge competition today at the University of New Mexico. The challenge is part of the 2006 NACUFS Southern Regional Conference.

Tim Backes, general manager for the SUB, is the conference chairman.

"I think it's really neat that we get to do this at our university," he said.

Backes said the winner of the competition will represent the southern region at the national competition in Ontario, Canada, this July. The southern region includes colleges and universities in North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Backes compared the competition to the television show "Iron Chef" where each contestant must use the same basic ingredient to prepare a dish.

"For this competition, it's a whole chicken," Backes said. "There are all kinds of different ways they are preparing it."

Among the regional finalists participating in the challenge is UNM's executive chef for Dining Services, Kimberly Calvo. She works in the SUB preparing food for meetings and banquets.

"I'm so proud that she was selected as one of the six semifinalists," Backes said. "There were a lot of contestants, over 250 schools."

Assistant culinary chairwoman Carol Scott said Calvo's participation was not related to UNM hosting the event.

"She had to put in her application just like everyone else," she said. "They all had to apply."

The selection was a surprise to Calvo as well.

"I really had no idea," she said. "It's an honor to be chosen because there are many talented chefs in the region."

Calvo submitted a recipe for lacquered chicken with edamame risotto and spinach and mushroom timbale. Calvo said she chose the dish because it is not New Mexican.

"I wanted to do something different," she said. "It's a twist of Asian and Middle Eastern."

The other recipes in the competition will be cumin-scented medallions of chicken with fiddlehead ferns, morel mushroom, Yukon potato puree and moscato-mustard sauce by William Woodford Claypool of Vanderbuilt University; Mediterranean chicken served with lemon asparagus and parsleyed red potatoes by DeWayne Edward McMurrey of Texas Tech University; macadamia nut and coconut-coated chicken breast stuffed with pineapple and herbs by Edward Cook of Texas Tech University; and braised chicken supreme with porcini mushroom sauce by Edward Castillo of Rice University.

The contest will be judged by Gitschner Fritz, Bernard Urban and Ernst Gruch, who are all chefs from the southern region. The entrÇes will be judged not only on taste, but on presentation as well. Calvo said the entrÇe's appearance and cleanliness of the work station will be considered.

"It's all about timing and organization," she said

Each contestant will have two pans to work with, Calvo said, and must produce four entrÇes as part of the judging process. The contestants will not be assisted.

"It's all by yourself," she said. "One hour, two burners."

But multitasking shouldn't be a problem for Calvo, who spends most of her day in the SUB's kitchen.

"I oversee all the catering that goes out," she said. "There are multiple orders a day, from platters to dinner parties."

With Calvo's busy schedule, she said she has not been worried about what the other contestants are making.

"I just focus on what I'm doing and make it the best I can," she said.

Culinary Challenge semifinals

SUB Ballroom

8 a.m.-5 p.m.

Free