Inspiration for Chef competitions

I’m always on the hunt for a new recipe or cooking method which might work well for a culinary competition. ACF Chefs often reach out to discuss menus they’re planning for competitions with lamb, pork, ducks etc… I always discuss utilization (bones for sauce, fat and trim for forcemeat, etc). Recently I learned to prepare an authentic, Greek Orange Cake at a cooking class. It’s absolutely delicious & inspired me to create a strawberry-rhubarb version of the cake & also a savory version; ‘candied bacon and leek cake’. I’m happy to share the recipe and inspire chefs to adapt this for their own recipes. I think the bacon and leek cake works really well for competitions-delicious and fast to prepare a mini version as a side, with the trim.

Mise in place & Recipe for Greek Orange Cake

• 4 eggs, whisked

• 1 Cup olive oil

• 2 Cups Greek yogurt

• 1 Cup sugar

• 2 Tbsp Orange Zest

• 4 tsp Baking Powder

• 1 lb filo (dried/baked and finely crumbled)

  Mix all of the ingredients together to create a smooth batter, pour into an oiled brownie pan and bake at 350F for about 40 minutes until set.

• Drizzle 1 cup of cold, simple syrup (I poached rhubarb in my simple syrup) over the warm cake slowly… enjoy!

Bacon and Leek ‘bread pudding’

I loved the orange in the orange cake recipe, it reminded me of candied bacon. I kept the same recipe but reduced the sugar by half… folded in crispy bacon with leek whites, shredded gruyere cheese and baked a smaller cake. I used a cookie cutter to punch out a small portion and wrapped with a bacon ribbon I ‘fried’ holding it together with 12 inch tweezer tongs until the bacon held it’s shape. The bacon could be replaced with braised duck leg, ground pork, etc… for a delicious side.