The kitchen filled with aromas of garlic and onions as students stuffed blistered shishito peppers with brown butter crab. Stir-fried noodles served as a base with more crab lumps on top, accompanied by two crab croquettes with onion and bechamel sauce within.
Three local high schoolers from Concord Regional Technical Center’s Culinary and Pastry Arts program competed in the Big Crab Cook-Off against seven other schools on Oct. 28.
The junior cooks Enola Bauer, Addison Sarette and Layne Durgin put their crab cooking skills to the test and came up with the menu on their own, but only after extensive deliberation.
“I think coming up with the dish is kind of the hardest idea, because you sit down and you’re looking online at ideas and it’s like ‘What can we do? What can we put on this plate? How can we make this a successful dish?’” Bauer said after the final judging.
CRTC’s crab dish with shishito peppers, brown butter noodles and crab croquettes. Credit: ALEXANDER RAPP / Monitor
The event, held at Lakes Region Community College, with ample kitchen space to house all the cooks during the competition, was organized by Heron Point Seafood and the New Hampshire Lodging & Restaurant Association Education Foundation.
The crab meat, provided by Heron Point Seafood, was a challenging ingredient for the young cooks across the board. Since they were judged on four categories — taste and flavor, knife skills and technique, creativity and presentation — crab cakes were not going to cut it.
Heron’s VP of Sales and Marketing, Rick Spalding, said the idea of this competition had been swirling around for a long time.
The company had been involved with ProStart, a nationwide culinary arts and restaurant management program for high school students, and they wanted to donate some food to give kids an opportunity to work with their crab meat, which differs from many other proteins used in regular classes.
CRTC’s Addison Sarette cuts onions for the crab croquettes. Credit: ALEXANDER RAPP / Monitor
CRTC’s Layne Durgin carefully stuffs the blistered shishito peppers with crab meat. Credit: ALEXANDER RAPP / Monitor
CRTC’s Enola Bauer carefully prepares the plating of the crab croquettes. Credit: ALEXANDER RAPP / Monitor
Addison Sarette carefully separates the stir-fried brown butter noodles for plating, one plate for judges and one for presentation. Credit: ALEXANDER RAPP / Monitor
CRTC Chef Instructor Jayson McCarter was proud to see the growth, planning and collaboration from his students throughout the process.
“We have extraordinary opportunities every day when we come to school. We connect with industry professionals when we get the opportunity outside of school to do events like this,” McCarter said. “It drives inquiry and education, and when the students are excited about learning, that’s a positive thing.”
Sarette said the biggest thing she had learned through the program was food safety and knife skills, both useful at work and at home.
Durgin, who said she was more of a pastry expert than a cook, added that the business and entrepreneurial side of the curriculum was particularly helpful to her and that she felt lucky to participate in the program.
Ultimately, Plymouth Regional High School came up with the winning dish. The crab salad made of lump crab, celery, cucumber, red onion and sriracha, complete with a mango salsa, wrapped in avocado and garnished with a sesame coral tuille, took home “The Golden Claw” grand prize of $3,500.
Plymouth High School’s winning dish, crab salad with mango salsa and multiple garnishes. Credit: ALEXANDER RAPP / Monitor
Dining and Cooking