BYU–Hawaii’s Executive Chef Spencer Tan recently won first place in the national 2014 Chef Culinary Conference’s Chopped competition. The conference, hosted at University of Massachusetts Amherst in June, is the premiere gathering for high-volume food service operators and campus chefs to learn more about world cuisines and flavor trends in an engaging environment.
The Chopped competition took place over three days between campus chefs from universities around the United States. Each competitor was given access to a pantry and refrigerator stocked with a wide variety of other ingredients, and the chefs had only 30 minutes to complete dishes for a panel of judges. The chefs needed to complete four plates, one for each judge plus one “beauty plate” for photography, before time ran out. At the end of each day’s competition, the judges critiqued the dishes based on presentation, taste, and creativity. The judges then decided which chefs were “chopped,” that is eliminated, from the competition.
By the end of the second day of competition, there were only two contestants remaining, including Chef Tan. On the third day of competition, two additional “wild card” challengers were added to compete in the final round. In the final round, each competitor was able to sabotage another chef by adding extra requirements that their rivals had to follow. Of the four competitors, Chef Tan received the maximum amount of three sabotages as each of his opponents chose him as their sabotage target because of his strength during the competition. His sabotages required him to give his ingredient basket to a competitor, cook with a small camping stove and cookware, and not taste or smell his food as he cooked.
Despite all the obstacles, Chef Tan won over the judges with his Hawaiian-style New England Clam Bake, receiving first place and the $500 prize. “It was the hardest thing of my life,” says Tan. “I was from the furthest away, a surprise from Hawaii, competing against big schools like Penn state, Yale, and UMass.”
At the conference, Chef Tan also participated in workshops where he learned new cooking techniques from industry-leading chefs from around the world. There were also workshops teaching new cuisines where Tan learned to cook Peruvian-style dishes that will eventually make their way into BYU–Hawaii’s menu. “We are not cooking for the same students each year,” says Tan. “I just went to learn and came back with much more.”
To learn more about the national Chef Culinary Conference, visit http://www.chefculinaryconference.com/.
