Dining Services Staff Savor Cooking Competition Success

Four staff members from St. Lawrence’s Dining Services took home the bronze earlier this month at the American Culinary Federation (ACF) Conference and competition hosted by Skidmore College.

St. Lawrence dining staff competed against 10 teams from other universities, as well as culinary professionals. 

Each team was asked to prepare a four-course menu for a panel of judges out of random ingredients from a basket in the style of popular cooking show “Chopped.” The University sent Dining Services employees Blayne Finley, Evan Belair, Lorraine Miller, and Sarah Sanger, who cooked up impressive dishes such as black-garlic injected pork loin, pan-roasted game hen, poached trout, and assorted sugar cookie tartlets.  

Other teams included dining staff from Skidmore, Holy Cross University, and UMass Amherst. There was also a team composed of professional chefs from Texas.  

Although St. Lawrence has sent teams to the ACF competition in the past, this is the first time the University has done so since the pandemic. 

“I’m very proud of them,” said Wendy Lawton, chef manager of dining services. “We are always working to educate and invest in our employees as much as we can, and we are glad they got to have this outstanding experience.”  

Students had the opportunity to taste one of the competition dishes on Wednesday as part of Dana’s “First 100 Plate” dinner, where the first 100 students who entered the dining hall got to try the black-garlic molasses injected pork loin with whipped potatoes. 

Senior Dexter Seeley said he heard about the tasting opportunity from his friend group, and raced over to be first in line.  

“I thought this was a really cool event,” he said. “I think Dana has improved a lot recently, and this just goes to show how much our staff seems to care.”