Team CINY Competes in the American Culinary Federation (ACF) Competition

Six members on Team CINY’s roster posted impressive results in the American Culinary Federation (ACF) competition held at the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill in Philadelphia, PA.  On the day, 6 more medals were won including two gold, two silver, a bronze, and a professional bronze medal.  Serenity Mullen, a Baldwin HS alum, won a bronze medal for a dish featuring Bronzino and a cream sauce flavored with shellfish and brandy.  Rebecca Thomas, a CCAP student from Virginia, ended her illustrious student competition career which saw her win 6 medals including two gold, entering her first competition as a professional and earning a professional bronze medal for a pastry dish featuring a bakewell tart with almond crunch ice cream.  Aaron Sin Tamma, a Food and Finance HS alum won his fourth medal, a silver, for a contemporary duck dish featuring red chile adobo and black beans. Katherine Cardoza, a Barry Tech BOCES alum, and veteran competitor, earned a silver medal for her trio of Cornish hen, featuring a croquette with fontina and a wild mushroom sauce. Michael Hernandez, a BBA Hospitality senior, put an exclamation point on his student competition career with his second gold medal for a complex rabbit dish featuring roast stuffed saddle with apple and cornbread.  Jake Costantino, a Warwick Valley HS alum, led all scorers on the day, winning best of show and a gold medal, with an Italian inspired Cornish hen dish, with a roast breast oreganata and braise with tomatoes, olives and basil.  The competition was judged by senior ACF judges including Fritz Gitschner, one of 70 certified master chefs in the US and executive chef of the Philadelphia Country Club, Tom Macrina, past ACF national president and corporate chef for US foods, and renowned pastry judge, Gunther Heiland, who is an international legend in the area of pastry arts.  The medal count now sits at 922 with two more competitions on the calendar in April.  Saturday, April 13, CINY hosts the newly named Christopher J. Neary memorial culinary classic, named after our recently departed ACF Northeast regional VP and great friend to many of us here at CINY.  Team CINY will have 23 competitors from our roster competing at this competition.  Our competition season will end in Maryland on April 28 where we will vie for the Chesapeake Bay Cup and attempt to bring the travelling cup back to CINY where it belongs.  A short break and then training camp opens for the national championships held in Orlando,FL August 3-7.