BY DENISE RICHARDSON
STAFF WRITER
Five SUNY Delhi students
had the culinary know-how
and teamwork to win
a regional championship
in a cooking
competition.
Also, the culinary
team is to appear today
on Fox & Friends,
a program on the Fox
News Channel that
begins at 7 a.m. The
students were in New
York City on Tuesday,
the day after being named
winners of the American
Culinary Federation Inc.’s
Student Team Northeast
Region Championship.
The culinary competition,
sponsored by R.L. Schreiber
Inc., was at the 2010 ACF
Northeast Regional Conference
at the Hershey Lodge
in Hershey, Pa.,
from Saturday to
Monday.
The title is the
fifth regional championship
in nine
years for the State
University College
of Technology at
Delhi, which is the
only New York state
team to have won
the Northeast Region Championship,
college officials
said.
The SUNY Delhi team
members are Julie Hernandez
of Delhi, Kenneth
Liranzo of New York, Joseph
Michaud of Gansevoort,
Mike Specioso of Binghamton
and team captain Sarah
Thurgood of Bovina
Center.
Chefs Victor
Sommo and James
Margiotta coach
Delhi’s hot-food
team, and chef Tom
Recinella, program
director of Delhi’s
culinary arts, is the
team’s manager.
Recinella said the five students
have worked together
as a team since last fall and
did a ``phenomenal’’ job at
the competition in Hershey.
Out of 40 possible points, the
team won 38.17, out-distancing
the closest team that had
32.5 points, Recinella said.
Typically, such contests are
won with quarter- or halfpoint
differences, he
said.
``I feel ecstatic
about it,’’ Recinella
said. ``It’s all about
the teamwork that
they learned.’’
Recinella said the
television programming
today is the
result of ties SUNY
Delhi culinary students have
with the U.S. Army Quartermaster
School in Fort Lee,
Virginia.
An ACF media release
said eight student teams
from Connecticut, New
Hampshire, New Jersey,
New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Vermont and West
Virginia competed Saturday
and Sunday. The
competition consisted
of three phases: cold food
presentation, skills
salon and cooking. In the
cooking segment, teams
prepared a pre-assigned
classical fish starter chosen
from ``Escoffier: The
Complete Guide to the
Art of Modern Cookery,’’
and a salad, entrée and
dessert of their choice.
As the Northeast Region
champions, the SUNY Delhi
team will compete for
the national title against
three other winning
regional teams at the 2010
ACF National Convention
in Anaheim, California,
Aug. 2 through 5. The team
with the highest score will
be named ACF Student
Team National Champions
for 2010.
The SUNY Delhi
students represent ACF
Chefs & Cooks of the
Catskill Mountains, a
release said. Before
advancing to the regional
competition, the team
competed at the local and
state levels for the title of
ACF Student Team State
Champions.
Also, SUNY Delhi’s
culinary hot-food team
is being filmed for a
full-length documentary,
``Mise En Place.’’ The
documentary, produced
by Kent Garrett Productions,
is to be released in
the summer/fall of 2011
and will chronicle the
team as members compete,
perform community
service and grow together
as a family.
The American Culinary
Federation Inc., established
in 1929, offers
educational resources,
training, apprenticeship
and accreditation and
has more than 22,000
members in 230 chapters.
The Student Team
Championship is designed
to raise the standards of
culinary excellence and
professionalism among
students, promote camaraderie
and educational
opportunities.
