STOUFFVILLE, Ont. — London’s Fanshawe College took home top honours at the annual Great, Amazing Duck Race — a grueling day-long farm-to-fork cooking competition hosted by King Cole Ducks Ltd. The Canadian Food & Wine Institute (Niagara, Ont.) captured second place while Fleming College (Peterborough, Ont.) finished third.
The winning dish by Fanshawe students Tina Marar and Alex Martin was “Duck Two Ways” — glazed cherry duck breast and almond-crusted lollipop. The team of Ryan Kim and Leanne Breukelman from CFWI of Niagara was golden honey-glazed duck bar with vegetable dumplings, citrus gastrique, black current rear compote with a flying duck tuile. Kylie Piney and Braden Lawther from Fleming College created Three Way Duck with cherry gastrique, rosti potato, butternut-squash puree and market vegetables.
Points were awarded for the farm portion of the day based on duck-egg collecting, butchery skills and general knowledge of King Cole Ducks. For the cooking portion of the competition — held at George Brown College’s culinary labs — students were judged on creativity, practicality, kitchen skills, food appearance and flavour by a judging panel that included Duff Lampard, executive chef, Metro Toronto Convention Centre; Robert Mills, executive chef, The Fairmont Royal York Hotel; Jess Mutch, executive chef, Chantecler and Lucy Waverman, editor, LCBO Food & Drink Magazine. Prizes were $500 for first, $250 for second and $100 for third place.
“We are so proud to have staged this Great Amazing Duck Race, an event that has become a must-compete culinary competition for the 10 participating Ontario colleges,” says Patti Thompson, third-generation duck farmer and VP of Sales & Marketing at King Cole. “The amount of effort and passion they invest in this annual event continues to raise the bar each year.”