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Mystery basket challenge leads to Silver Medal for Cornell Dining chefs at Skidmore ACF Challenge

Congratulations to a group of four Cornell Dining chefs who headed to Skidmore College's 10th Annual Culinary Conference and Competition last weekend. It was the first American Culinary Federation (ACF) competition held at the Saratoga Springs campus since January 2020, and Cornell's team came home with a Silver Medal in the mystery basket style competition.

Four people in chef coats and hats wearing silver medals
Cornell Dining's Cece Day, Tait Alling, Lahcen Nya, and John Stark wearing their Silver Medals at Skidmore.

Chefs Tait Alling, Cece Day, John Stark, and Lahcen Nya trained with Executive Chef Ambarish Lulay and Chefs Josh Holden, Chloe Greenhalgh, and Maurice Choo for two months before competing in a field of nine teams from higher ed institutions around the region at Skidmore. The teams have three hours and fifteen minutes to prepare a four-course meal with the provided ingredients, including three plated dishes and a hot buffet-style platter, for the judges to consider.

Several people wearing chef coats sit around a table while another stands at the corner of the table
Reviewing with the ACF Competition judges.

"We are very proud of the team and the hard work they put in to get ready for this competition," Chef Ambarish said. "Culinary competitions are a great way to build morale and camaraderie, and learn about how we work under pressure while pushing our culinary acumen to the next level."

This year's mystery basket of ingredients the team had to incorporate in their dishes included duck, branzino, bone-in pork loin, Napa cabbage, oyster mushrooms, kale, artichokes, Peruvian sweet potatoes, couscous, red quinoa, blood oranges, pomegranates, dried apricots, persimmons, hazelnuts, and bleu cheese.

The team ended up crafting an appetizer of branzino ravioli with poached branzino, a duo of duck entrée, a cream filled éclair with pomegranate sauce, and a buffet dish featuring pan-seared pork chops.

"During the competition they each work on several components of one of the three initial dishes that need to be created, then come together to plate in the plating window," Chef Josh Holden says. "After the three-course meal for four judges has been put out, they all work together to create the buffet platter."

People with aprons and Cornell Dining caps approach a table with buffet serving dishes
Cornell Dining's buffet dish presented and ready to be judged.

Host Skidmore College, Professional Chefs of New Hampshire, and the University of Massachusetts won Gold Medals in the competition; Cornell was joined by Princeton University and the Wee Burn Country Club in the Silver Medal category; and Middlebury College, Rochester Institute of Technology, and SUNY Geneseo earned Bronze Medals.

"Please join me in congratulating the team on this wonderful accomplishment and kicking off an exciting semester ahead of us," Chef Ambarish added.

About Cornell Dining

Cornell Dining is consistently ranked in the Princeton Review's top ten for best campus food among all colleges and universities in the country! That high rating comes from customer surveys, and reflects Cornell Dining's commitment to serving high-quality foods that are healthy and creatively prepared with genuine care for a diverse community. Cornell Dining operates about 30 on-campus eateries -- which include residential dining rooms, cafés, coffeehouses, food courts, and convenience stores -- and serves more than 23,000 meals a day to members of the Cornell community. For more information, visit dining.cornell.edu.