Hawaii Community College’s Hilo Campus, Hawaii Community College’s West Hawaii Campus, and Maui Culinary Academy competed in this year’s Big Island Chocolate Student Competition at the Fairmont Orchid Resort over the Mother’s Day weekend.
Hawaii Community College’s Hilo Campus, Hawaii Community College’s West Hawaii Campus, and Maui Culinary Academy competed in this year’s Big Island Chocolate Student Competition at the Fairmont Orchid Resort over the Mother’s Day weekend.
As we walked into the room where the competition was being held, we could feel the concentration and intensity of each of the three students participating and representing their school. At times, you could hear a pin drop as everyone whispered around them so to not disturb them.
Hilo was represented by student chefs Taryn Isa, Hana Jung-Okuda and Tammy Soares, with chef instructors Brian Hirata and Karen Daniels there to support them. They created a “Tropical Chocolate Sphere” and were the first to start, for the four-hour preparation time.
The West Hawaii culinary students were Cameron Linder, Tiffany Chesser, and Darryl Tacderan with patisserie instructor chef Fernand Guiot. “Pele’s Mango Tiramisu” was their creation and were the third to present.
Maui Culinary Academy students were Taylor McGraw, Devin Galloway, Noelle Bendell and Yi Song under the guidance of chef Teresa Shurilla. They did not give their creation a name, but made a chocolate dish that resembled eggs in a nest and were the second presenter.
Judges for the event were chef Stanton Ho; chef Daniel Sampson of the Fairmont Orchid; chef Derek Poirier of Valrhona USA; and chef Donald Wressell of Guittard.
As the judges were presented the first dish by Hilo’s culinary students, Tammy spoke to the judges about their well tempered, shiny chocolate sphere, then Hana perfectly poured warm vanilla bean crème anglaise over the sphere. It melted the top and opened up the sphere perfectly to expose the inside of the sphere. It was a “wow” moment!
Tempering chocolate is crucial and very precise, as their instructions prove.
Tempering Chocolate
2 pounds 64 percent couverture chocolate
Chop really fine one-third (302 grams) of the chocolate. Set aside for seeding.
Place two-thirds (604 grams) of the chopped couverture chocolate in dry bowl. Melt the chocolate over barely simmering water. When the chocolate is melted to 127 degrees F (50degrees C), remove from the heat and seed little by little with the chopped chocolate. Stir the mixture using a rubber spatula until the lumps melt. Check the temperature with instant-read thermometer, when temperature of the chocolate has reached 81 degrees F (27 degrees C), place and temper to 90 degrees F (32 degrees C).
West Hawaii’s Pele’s Mango Tiramisu’s lady fingers, an important ingredient in making tiramisu was also so precise.
Lady Fingers
Egg yolks, 90 grams
Sugar, 45 grams
Egg whites, 135 grams
Sugar, 75 grams
Lemon juice, .5 ml
Cake flour, 150 grams
Powdered sugar, 60 grams
Procedure:
1. Whip the yolks with the sugar (45 grams) until white in color.
2. Whip the egg whites with sugar (75 grams) until it reaches a soft peak.
3. Fold egg mixtures together.
4. Fold in flour.
5. Put mixture into a pastry bag.
6. Pipe dough into diagonal lines on sheet pan with the dough lines touching.
7. Sprinkle the dough with powdered sugar.
8. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes.
Maui Culinary Academy created eggs for the bird’s nest and the “yolk” was made of apricots.
Apricot Sphere (Egg Yolk)
Yolk: Apricot puree, 500 grams
Sugar, 70 grams
Xanthum gum, 1.4 grams
Calcium lactate, 5.7 grams
Setting Bath:
Distilled water, 1000 grams
Sodium alginate, 8 grams
Procedure:
1. Mix apricot puree and sugar. Thicken the puree with xanthum gum to desired consistency. Incorporate calcium lactate into the puree with blender. Transfer puree into squeeze bottle.
2. Mix distilled water and sodium alginate in vita-prep.
3. Squeeze puree into a measuring spoon, submerge the spoon in setting bath to form the apricot sphere.
4. For apricot caviar, transfer rest of the puree into caviar maker, form the caviar over alginate bath by pushing air out through the syringe.
The “egg white” was made of honey and almond milk.
Honey Almond Cream ( Egg White)
Yield: 20 portions
Almonds, 150 grams
Almond milk, 400 grams
Honey Almond Cream:
Almond milk, 375 grams
Heavy cream, 375 grams
Sugar, 75 grams
Almond extract, 2 teaspoons
Honey, 45 grams
Xanthum gum, 2.6 grams
Procedure:
1. Warm milk, toast almonds, transfer into hot milk, steep for 30 minutes. Strain.
2. Warm up heavy cream with sugar, pour into almond milk, add almond extract and honey, whisk till everything dissolves completely.
3. Cool the cream mixture over ice bath, transfer into vita-prep, and thicken with xanthum gum.
This event started at 9 a.m. and the students and instructors had to wait untill the winners were announced at the Big Island Chocolate Festival 2015 evening event at 8 p.m. Winning first place was Maui Culinary Academy, second place went to Hilo’s culinary team and third place to West Hawaii.
Congratulations to everyone as you all did a fantastic job. They all were winners in my book as I watched their dedication and hard work.
Small Bites
Vita-prep is the professional model of Vita-Mix.
Xanthum gum is commonly found in commercial salad dressing and sauces to prevent oil separation by stabilizing the emulsion. It serves as a thickener also.
“Seeding” is a method of tempering chocolate by melting then adding solid tempered chocolate to “seed” the right crystals and encourage them to form in the melted chocolate.
A thermometer is necessary in melting chocolate as tempering dark chocolate is between 88-89 degrees F and milk and white chocolate is between 84-86 degrees F.