A huge congrats to Duncan Ly for the win at the #ccc2014 @goldmedalplates!
Laughing Stock Winery’s Blind Trust White 2012 Revealed at the Mystery Wine Competition of the CCC!
The first of three challenging competitions is now completed at the 2014 Canadian Culinary Championships with Chef Duncan Ly, from the Yellow Door Bistro in Calgary being chosen as the People’s Choice. The award does not affect the official judging scores for the ultimate title – The 2013 Canadian Culinary Champion – but it is a nice feather in the cap for Chef Duncan Ly.
“It feels good to win the People’s Choice Award this evening,” says Chef Ly. “We worked hard and concentrated on the wine to come up with our pairing. The win gives us an extra boost of energy and confidence going into the next competitions. But the competition is far from over!”
The Mystery Wine Competition is the first of three gruelling challenges for the Chefs, each of whom has won the Gold Medal Plates competition qualifying event in their respective cities. Less than 24 hours before the Mystery Wine Competition, they were given the Mystery Wine – Blind Trust White 2012 from Laughing Stock Winery in the Okanagan Valley, along with a food budget of $550 with which to feed 425 guests. This morning they had to decide on the perfect dish to pair with the wine and then find all of the ingredients in Kelowna. None of the chefs had any suppliers or shops that they are used to, so had to depend on their creativity and ingenuity.
David Lawrason, national wine advisor for Gold Medal Plates was instrumental in choosing the Mystery Wine for this year’s competition. “Laughing Stock’s Blind Trust White 2012 was a mystery indeed. Non-disclosure of the grapes in the blend was specifically designed to keep everyone guessing. What I liked was the way it harmonized the fresh fruit aromatics and laid in a gentle carpet of oak through partial barrel fermentation. It added sophistication and elevated it beyond the norm of the many white blends now populating the shelves.”
The competition continues with the dramatic Black Box competition Saturday morning and the Grand Finale on Saturday night, where the top three chefs will stand on the podium.
Canadian Culinary Championships Backgrounder – Gold Medal Plates’ winning chefs from 11 Canadian cities, coast to coast will compete in the ultimate contest to crown Canada’s #1 Chef in February, 2014. The Grand Finale of Gold Medal Plates (the Canadian Culinary Championships) is a national project celebrating Canadian excellence in food, wine, sport and entertainment. Net proceeds from Gold Medal Plates ($8.2 million to date) are given to the Canadian Olympic Foundation which supports Olympic athletes and high performance programs such as ‘Own the Podium’. Kelowna is now home to this prestigious Canadian competition for the next 2 years.
Canadian Olympic Foundation – The Beneficiary of the events: The Canadian Olympic Foundation is a national charitable organization created by the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) supporting high performance athletes across all winter and summer sports. The Foundation’s Mission is to generate support to meet the technical, scientific, medical and coaching needs of Canada’s high performance sport system and assist Canada’s athletes in becoming ambassadors for sport, healthy living and the pursuit of excellence across the nation. Net proceeds from Gold Medal Plates are given to the Canadian Olympic Foundation to support high performance programs such as Own the Podium. To learn more about the Foundation and the programs it funds, please visit www.olympicfoundation.ca
