Winnipeg high school culinary team wins national championship

A brigade of students at Gordon Bell High School won a national cooking championship in Montreal over the weekend.

A Winnipeg high school’s cooking team has won a competition crowning them champions of the kitchen.

The Kitchen Brigade team at Gordon Bell High School was named national champion at the La Tablée des Chefs Canadian Culinary Competition over the weekend, defeating top student chefs across the country.

Grade 10 and 11 students Cailyn Olshevski, Matea Thiessen-Unger, Yevhen Zinchenco, Avery Van Solkema, and Sebastian Salter were the first team outside of Quebec to win the national championship in 13 years.

“It was amazing; we’re really excited,” Van Solkema said.

“I’m really proud of our teammates,” Zinchenco said.

The competition is similar to cooking shows like “Chopped,” where the teams receive a basket of mystery items and are tasked with creating and cooking a meal in a one-hour time limit, incorporating those ingredients into the dishes.

“You have no room for mistakes, and you always have to be in the kitchen, no distractions or anything,” Zinchenco said. “You have to be locked in.”

In the final round, the Gordon Bell team received a turnip, a sirloin steak and Brussels sprouts as ingredients.

Their first idea for the dish was shot down by judges.

“We wrote down steak tartare because we had been practising that, and as they saw us writing it down, they said, ‘Sorry, no steak tartare allowed,’” Van Solkema said, noting the dish would be considered too easy for teams to make.

The group pivoted and created a deconstructed summer salad with medium-rare steak, potato chips, and a Brussels sprout puree, along with a tomato confit.

“One of the judges said they had never seen the Brussels sprout puree, and it tasted amazing,” said Van Solkema.

“They also said they liked how many techniques we showed with our dish,” said Thiessen-Unger.

The team will return to Montreal on June 21 to represent Canada in an international match against a school from Paris, France, an experience they’re both nervous and excited for.