Drexel senior Emma Louth is headed to Napa Valley in a less than two weeks to compete in the San Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition. She won the Mid-Atlantic regional round, held at Drexel University's Academic Bistro, beating out seven other hopefuls. Now she'll pack up her knife roll and head west to the Culinary Institute of America at Napa Valley, CA to cook her take on the classic Surf 'n Turf: Smoke+Ocean+Prairie [.pdf].
Above is a shot of the competition dish Chef Louth provided for the post. Delicious looking, eh? Rare bison tenderloin on a fig balsamic reduction, topped with smoked, deep fried oysters with a crispy potato Napoleon and arugula pine nut salad. While I didn't get a chance to taste this awesome looking dish, I did get a chance to spend a little time talking with Emma about the competition, studying the culinary arts at Drexel and a sprinkling of everything else going on in her busy life.
The seed for the Smoke+Ocean+Prairie dish was planted in the fall term during one of Louth's classes. She had seven or eight different kinds of oysters to work with and had no restrictions on preparation. Not being the biggest raw oyster fan, she smoked then deep fried them and had a taste. She thought "I'm a person who doesn't like oysters, but I love it," and she knew she had a winner.
Above is a shot of Drexel's newest kitchen where Louth and her classmates spent hours practicing their craft. But her love for food started during her childhood. She told me of a second grade fairytale she wrote, back home in New England, of the invention of London broil and Bearnaise.
Louth likes to eat out when she can, but being a student puts a damper on things like that. When she and her classmates head out, she prefers places like Lolita and their "innovative cuisine." Louth points out their use of interesting ingredients like jicama, which they made more popular around town. On the other end of the spectrum, she loves spots like Taqueria la Veracruzana. Their pork tacos stood out while on a class trip to the Italian Market. After telling her of my recent move to the Italian Market area, she said she'd be at Veracruzana all the time; we're not so far off from that reality.
But what meals about at home? She loves cooking Chinese cuisine. There's a lot of preparation beforehand of the food making good use of all the knifeskills she's learned. And there's the mental aspect of it too: thinking the dishes through as the wok speeds the timing up. She finds wok cooking quick and exciting. She loves dumplings because you can fill them with anything. She'll also admit to spaghetti for the ease of it and being a college student always pressed for time, it's a great time saver.
I walked through the main class kitchen to see the equivalent of a kitchen cubicle: sections of ranges pointed at each other in islands.
Louth lists Charlie Palmer as a big influence in her philosophy as a chef, which requires a lot of management skills. She heard Palmer speak at the 5th Annual International Chefs Congress (she missed the first few days of classes, but it was well worth it). He went with some of the chefs from his various restaurants around the country.
I respected what he had to say about being a mentor to your staff… Not looking to say "this is how I run things and this is what you have to follow, the mold you have to be in, to be one of my chefs. It's really: what can you bring to the table and how can you make this great." I respect that style and that lifestyle… that management style. I think that's something you really have to think about even if you're not a manager, working with people and collaborating, making something better than you yourself could put out on your own.
She took this knowledge to her co-op at The Regatta at Cotuit in Cape Cod where she first found bison tenderloin. "It was an introduction to the flavor and that's why I chose the meat [for her competition dish] because it's interesting and the sweetness of it, I think, really complements the salty-smoky oyster." She started off as an expediter in the spring (slow season), dealing with incoming orders. She moved to the broiler, then garde manger, then sautée, then desserts and back to expediting. She went from 30 incoming tickets a night to 130 by the summer and that's when she realized "I can do it, it's not just something you're either good at it or you're not. But you learn, and it was a confidence booster to me, 'so maybe I can do this.'" Her head chef and pastry chef were very helpful and truly made her time there a learning experience in addition to a working experience.
The newish bar area at The Academic Bistro.
Louth doesn't have any finite plans after college, the finals of the contest may have a big part of her future, but she wants to try a little bit of everything. She'd love to try catering to have that skill set in her repertoire. She'd love to work more with pastries as Drexel doesn't have a full pastry program to explore. Working in a restaurant is key as well because you do everything and learn a lot day to day. Ideally, she'd love to travel to Ireland and Italy to learn old world bread making. Maybe there's a future for her at The University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy?!
So back to the competition in Napa. The competition is in two parts on March 12th and 13th. Part 1 will be a mystery box challenge where each competitor will have three main ingredients and two hours to prepare a dish for the the 10 judges. Part 2 will be making the signature dish, but in appetizer size and for 200 people. She'll have a sous chef to help in all the preparation. A total of $19,000 broken down in different categories will be handed out. The Grand Prize will take home a $10,000 cash prize and a position in the kitchen from one of the judges of the competition. We can all vote for Louth on the 13th at 2p eastern as the competition winds down in NapaWe can watch [and vote for Emma!] the competition online at the Almost Famous Chef site from 1.30p-5p on Saturday and 8.30p-11p (both times are Eastern).
The dining room of The Academic Bistro where Louth, and her fellow classmates, prepare meals weekly for the general public. A better kept secret than the well-known Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College a few blocks west. The entire kitchen is student-run so the feel of the meals semester to semester changes quite a bit.
I had a great time chatting with her and hopefully this fairytale will end with a Happily ever after for her. Go Emma!
