Chef Roland Glauser Wins Taste of Nova Scotia Cutting Edge Culinary Competition
Chef Roland Glauser of Charlotte Lane Cafe took home first prize with his “Cutting Edge Pork Medallions” at the third annual Taste of Nova Scotia Cutting Edge Culinary Competition. Chef Glauser, of Shelburne, was one of ten Taste of Nova Scotia chefs that faced-off on the Saltscapes culinary stage for a black box competition on April 29 to May 1, 2011.
“I must admit, I was a bit hesitant to participate at first, even the most experienced chef gets a bit nervous when faced with the daunting ‘black box’ of secret ingredients,” says Glauser. “When all of the secret ingredients were unveiled, I was delighted…it’s kind of hard to go wrong with Taste of Nova Scotia featured products – the quality is so amazing.”
Chef Glauser, like all the competing chefs, was given 45 minutes to create plates for three judges using his black box of Taste of Nova Scotia ingredients. Glauser’s mystery items included double smoked bacon and pork tenderloin from The Pork Shop, Sugar Moon Farm maple syrup, rainbow carrots from Dominion Produce and flaxflour from Valley Flaxflour.
Working with his volunteer sous-chef from the audience, Glauser’s final creation was Pork Medallions with cranberry ginger lime sauce, served on creamy goat cheese mashed potatoes with Asian rainbow carrot and veggie slaw.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve competed in front of a few hundred people with the clock ticking and a volunteer assistant from the audience who I’d never met,” says Glauser. “Surprisingly it was a lot of fun, and winning first prize made it even more so…and I sure would like to re-connect with my sous chef. I want to personally thank her by inviting her down to the restaurant for dinner sometime this season.”
Dueling chefs over the three days of Saltscapes included Earlene Busch (Chanterelle Country Inn & Cottages), Les Stevens (Harbour City Bar and Grill, Delta Halifax), Terry Vassallo (Trattoria della Nonna), Peter Welton (The Port Pub & Bistro), Chris Velden (Ryan Duffy’s), Jamie Mullett (Delta Hotels), Roger Joharchy (Inn on the Lake), Shelley Steventon (Old Fish Factory Restaurant), Roland Glauser (Charlotte Lane Cafe) and Dale Nichols (Digby Pines).
Final scores for the competition were compiled based on a combination of the judges’ marks and votes from the audience.