April's general meeting was the Chef of the Year cook off between Brad Yearwood, CEC and myself. The cook off was held at Cobblestone Creek CC and I would like to thank them for hosting our meeting. We also invited the Rochester Chapter Restaurant  Association to the cook off and thanks for coming to support us.
    The meeting kicked off with two guests, Jeannie Riordan from State Venture Group who brought many samples for us to try and take home. Also Steve Rich from Rich's Products which we sampled different pizza dough's. Thanks for taking your time to show us different products and support for our chapter.
    Before the cook off started there were two action stations for our guest and members to enjoy. Dave Festenstein did a colorful and flavorful stir fry station. Cobblestone provided a carving station for all of us to nibble at while the cook off was getting started.
    Now it was time to head to the kitchen to see the secret protein unveiled. It was one lobster and six shrimp each. Brad had also provided an array of produce, legumes, fruits and tubers for us to write our menu. We had 20 minutes to gather mise en place and hand in the menu. Once cooking began we had one hour to produce three plates and an additional 5 minutes to plate. This took some thinking since a lobster only has two claws.
    During the cooking myself and Brad were having agreat time joking and busting each other chops to ease the pressure. When all said and done we both finished on time and both plates were beautifully composed. My dish was Butter Poached Lobster, Herbed Shrimp Moussiline, Mango-Orange Scented Israeli Cous Cous, Tourne of Yellow Squash, Haricot Verts and Tomato Conccase finished by a Shellfish Essence.
    Brad's dish consisted of Butter Poached Lobster, Shrimp-Herb Moussiline Quenelles, Toasted Israeli Cous Cous and Black Beluga Lentil Pilaf and an English Cucumber Greek Salad and also finished by a Shellfish Reduction. As you can see both menus are similar, that's because Brad and I worked together for a couple of years.
When both plates we finished the 6 past chefs' of the year tasted the dishes and then voted on who will be the COTY in September. Those who voted were Paul Healy, CEC, AAC, Michael Vasile, Lisa Cunliffe,CEC, Van Lauglin, Earnest Miller, CEC, AAC, John Venturo, CEC, AAC and Roy Holman, CEC, AAC. The ballots are in a sealed envelope and will not be revealed until the President's Dinner in September. If there is a tie Chef Don will decide the outcome.(no pressure(:
Next month will be back at the VFW on May 21,2007 at 6:30 pm. Mark Voyten ,PPBM from SYSCO Syracuse will be making another appearance and will be demonstrating fresh and frozen seafood summer ideas.

See you then, Chef Macri