Weeks of jangled nerves, sacrificed sleep, and hours in the kitchen.

It all paid off for VCC s junior chef team earlier this month when it won the honour of representing Canada in the 2012 World Culinary Olympics in Erfurt, Germany.

Coached by Tobias MacDonald, VCC instructor and head chef at Ladner s La Belle Auberge, the group beat out teams from Nova Scotia, PEI and Quebec to win the competition to become Youth Team Canada at the Canadian Culinary Federation s national convention.

“This is an incredible achievement for the entire culinary arts department at VCC, and is yet another testament of their passion, skill and talent,  says Jonathan Rouse, dean of VCC s school of hospitality.  I am so proud of our junior culinary team and know they will do extremely well representing Canada at the international level.”

 It shows the calibre of students and instructors at this college,  MacDonald says, adding that leading chefs from around the city supported the team.  We re so fortunate to have such a great food culture in Vancouver and VCC s a big part of that, getting good people out into the industry.

Student team members were John Ho and Sophie Fenlon, supported by Kathy Chan and Daniel Davyduke.

MacDonald, coaching for the first time, called the competition mentally exhausting to watch.  I was tired after it and they were the ones doing the work.

On the VCC menu was a first course of lobster meatball with seared salmon and lobster ravioli. The main course was a rabbit saddle wrapped in bacon, with dessert of chocolate fondant bombe, mango jelly and pineapple tart with vanilla ice cream.

The team was told the requisite ingredients two weeks prior to the competition, and was given a total of four hours during the competition to prepare the plates.

 We wanted to cook the most beautiful food we could, with the highest degree of technical difficulty, without falling apart,  MacDonald says of the team s strategy.

B.C. competitors swept the medals at the conference held in Windsor, Ont. last week. VCC s own John-Carlo Felicella, department head of culinary arts, was named CCFCC chef of the year. In fact, winners in all four CCF award categories are VCC alumni.