The Flavour Flip Challenge had 11 teams of two students each travelling to Vaughan Mills and visiting the Edo Japan location. Each team selected a dish that they brought back to North Campus to be deconstructed, and the components then used to make a gourmet meal.
Up for grabs was a $1,000 Vaughan Mills gift card for first place, $750 for second and $500 for third.
Humber brought back some of its alumni to judge including Adam Lafleur, chef de cuisine at Constantine; Daniel Calabrese, sous chef at the King Edward Hotel; and Rob Yu, executive chef at Yokai Izakaya. Also serving as judges was Joanne Ross, general manager of Vaughan Mills; Cat Chen, director, regional marketing (Ontario) with Edo Japan; Ted Reader, known as Godfather of the Grill; and Gina Antonacci, senior vice-president, Academic, Humber Polytechnic.
Reader said he was looking for creativity, good flavours and presentation when he was judging the dishes.
"In the end, did they make the dish pop by elevating it," said Reader. "I've enjoyed watching the creativity of the students and seeing what new dishes they've created."
Culinary Management students Jessica Aquino and Iris Calderon placed first. They started with a Tempura Shrimp Chop Chop Bowl from Edo Japan which they transformed into shrimp cabbage roll, teriyaki caviar and shiitake arancini.
"It feels amazing to win," gushed Calderon. "We both were very supportive of each other and were always communicating throughout the challenge."
It's been a successful year for the two as they were part of the Sarap Delicioso team that won first place in the annual Kraft Heinz Iron Chef competition (although Calderon was unfortunately unable to attend the competition due to an emergency).
Lourdes Velasco and Daniel Mallagan finished second for transforming the Sushilicious Platter into sushi tacos. Placing third was Marisa De Pinto and Thuy Kieu Tran Pham for elevating the Teriyaki Chicken Rice Meal into taro ice cream mochi and teriyaki chicken noodle soup.
The judges liked what they saw from the students.
"There's been some great effort here and it's quite impressive to see what the students can do," said Yu.
Calabrese added that he was impressed with the elevated dishes and complemented the students on their creativity and excellent flavours.
Find out more by visiting Humber's baking and culinary programs website.
