Website: http://www.cirillosacademy.com/ and http://culinaryshowdown.ca/
Address: Cirillo’s Academy, 4894 Dundas St W., Tor., ON
When I attended: June 24th, 2015 6:00pm to 9:00pm, Charity event
I was invited to the first launch party for the Culinary Showdown at Cirillo’s Academy hosted by Chef Corbin Tomaszeski, where 4/5 chefs participating in this year’s Culinary Showdown was revealed. This year, the line up includes Chef Corbin Tomaszeski, Chef Ricardo, Chef Elizabeth Faulkner, and returning champion, Chef Lynn Crawford.
Last year I attended a similar launch party at Chef Susur Lee’s restaurant Bent, where I ended up signing up for the Kitchenaid Cook for the Cure Culinary Showdown event to support the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. The event with Susur Lee was fabulous with his presence with tons of delicious food throughout the evening. I will write about my experience at the Culinary Showdown soon where I got to cook alongside Chef Vikram Vij and a fun team on stage to battle for the Culinary Showdown title.
Chef Corbin
Culinary Showdown 2015
Chef John Cirillo was at the event at his cooking school to welcome the attendees including many who have participated in the showdown in the past.
Launch Party
It was a touching evening as alarming statistics were revealed. Did you know that 1 in 9 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer? During the evening, we had an inspirational story from a fundraiser named Tina who talked about her hardships including losing her mother who battled various types of cancers, including breast cancer. Tina had already raised $9000 to-date which is incredible! Her take-away message to all attendees was,”every penny counts!” I totally agree.
Also, as part of the evening festivities, we had 5 teams participate in a cooking battle, where each team had only 12 minutes to prepare a dish. Our team made a pan-fried rosemary hoisin marinated pork loin with a butter wine sauce, over a bed of polenta, smashed peas and a side of green beans. Although we did not win the competition that evening, our team was happy with the presentation and the overall outcome.
Our team
Our group’s creation
With the Culinary Showdown happening on November 14th, 2015 at the Weston Harbour Castle, I encourage you sign up! Before I registered to fundraise last year, I told myself that I would not be able to raise over $200. With supportive friends and family, I ended up fundraising over $2800 in a month. Imagine how much you can raise if you started now?
Having participated in the Kitchenaid Cook for the Cure Culinary Showdown, I can cross this off my bucket list. Knowing that the proceeds made a difference is the best feeling in the world!
For more information, please visit the Culinary Showdown Website.
Thank you to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation for the invitation to the launch party!
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