Organizers of the annual Gold Medal Plates Canadian Culinary Championships are expanding the competition.
Gold Medal Pints, an invitational beer competition highlighting the best in Canadian lagers and ales, has been added this year.
Gold Medal Pints saw local breweries hand-selected by international beer authority and event national beer advisor Stephen Beaumont, working in consultation with a team of local beer experts from across Canada. The breweries were invited to pour beers at local Gold Medal Plates events—used to select the finalists to compete in the national championships in Kelowna next month.
Five beers were poured at each city’s Gold Medal Plate preliminary event, with guests invited to sample the ales, lagers and mixed fermentation beers. The 50 top Canadian beers were entered into a single, nation-wide competition that saw the team of independent experts, led by Beaumont, judge pilsners against stouts and IPAs against wheat beers in order to determine the five beers to be poured at the Canadian Culinary Championships in Kelowna Feb. 2.
At the Mystery Wine Pairing Event, the names of the Gold, Silver and Bronze medal winning beers will be announced.
“We are very excited about this flavourful addition to Gold Medal Plates and look forward to evolving it into a true, Canada-wide beer competition in the coming years,” said Beaumont.
In Kelowna, at the “Mystery night Feb. 2, guests will have a chance to taste the finalists and those beers will be judged live during the event.
The finalists to be judged at the culinary championships will be Great Western Original 16 (Saskatchewan), Four Winds Nectarous (BC), Dageraad Blonde (BC), North Brewing Headline Milk Stout (NS), Dieu du Ciel Péché Mortel (Québec).
Meanwhile, the chefs who will compete at the 2018 Canadian Culinary Championships are:
• Alex Chen – Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar, Vancouver, representing B.C.
• Shane Chartrand – SAGE, representing Edmonton
• Blake Flann – BLAKE from Canmore, representing Calgary
• David Vinoya - Wild Sage Kitchen & Bar, representing Regina
• James McFarland - University of Saskatchewan, representing Saskatoon
• Mike Robins - Sous Sol, representing Winnipeg
• Lorenzo Loseto - George Restaurant, representing Toronto
• Briana Kim - Café My House, representing Ottawa
• Éric Gonzalez - L’Atelier Joël Robuchon, representing Montreal
• Barry Mooney – Gio, representing Nova Scotia
• Nick Jewczyk - The Fifth Ticket, representing St. John’s
Net proceeds from the championships go to the Canadian Olympic Foundation which supports Olympic athletes and high performance programs. Since 2004, Gold Medal Plates has raised more than $12 million for Canada’s Olympic athletes.
Tickets for the 2018 event are now on sale, attendees can choose from three event package options that include the Friday Mystery Wine Pairing competition that will include Gold Medal Pints, the Black Box Competition or the Grand Finale on the Saturday night.
This year’s featured musical entertainer will be Neil Osborne of 54/40 and the MC will be Olympic gold medalist ski cross racer Ashleigh McIvor.
Tickets can be purchased online at www.goldmedalplates.com.
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