The American Culinary Federation Rochester Chapter (ACFR) has partnered with Foodlink once again to hold the ACFR 2024 Chef of the Year (COTY) Cookoff on Monday, Nov. 18. The event will be held in the Foodlink Community Kitchen from 6 to 8:30 p.m. The program features grazing stations followed by the Chef of the Year Competition Cookoff with local radio celebrity, Dino Kay, as emcee and ending with the announcement of the 2024 COTY.
The event is free and open to the public. Registration is required for admission, as attendance will be limited. The deadline to register is Friday, November 15. For event details and to register, visit www.ACFRoc.org.
The COTY title is the highest honor ACF Rochester awards to a member chef. Contenders for the title are nominated by fellow ACFR members. To compete in the Chef of the Year Cookoff, which is the final round in the selection process, competitors must demonstrate fulfillment of a specific set of criteria relating to a nominee’s years and level of experience in the food & beverage industry or culinary education. Selection criteria also include contributions in support of ACF Rochester, its mission and initiatives, as well as service to the community.
Competing in this year’s Cookoff are:
- Mike Vasile, ACFROC Board Member
- Dustin Muroski, Executive Chef – Grappa Italian Nouveau
- David Kasper, CEC, CCA, ACFROC President, ACF Certification Evaluator, ACF Site
Evaluator, Executive Chef at The Summit at Brighton, Rochester Presbyterian Home
Culinary Consultant/Servsafe Instructor, Culinary advisory board member at MCC
The evening begins with networking and tastings available from grazing stations provided by the Foodlink Career Fellowship Culinary Apprenticeship Program, Monroe Community College Hospitality Program, Rochester Institute of Technology Dining, Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES, and BOCES II Culinary Programs.
At 6:30 p.m., emcee Dino Kay will kick off the competition in the Foodlink Community Kitchen. There, the competitors will each have a station and ingredients available for them to cook their entrées. The chefs will prepare a full dinner entrée with protein, starch, and vegetable components. The competition begins with Chris Januzzi, 2023 COTY winner and Senior Technical Assistant and Adjunct Culinary Instructor at Monroe Community College, revealing the secret protein he has chosen. The competing chefs then have 15 minutes to plan their dish using that protein, one hour to assemble their ingredients and prepare their dish, and ten minutes to plate (four plates each, three for the judging and one for presentation to the audience.) The Cookoff ends with the chefs stepping back from their stations and presenting to the judges, who have 20 minutes to score the dishes and determine the next Chef of the Year.
The panel of five judges consists of Chef of the Year 2023 Chris Januzzi and former Chef of the Year title holders: Chefs Michael Macri, Lead Judge Sean Flaherty, Brian Mattice, Sarah Kelsey, and John Venturo. The dishes are scored based on taste, presentation, use of secret protein, nutritional components, and the chef’s adherence to food safety rules in preparation.
The evening ends with the announcement of the 2024 ACF Rochester COTY and plans for the Awards Dinner in 2025, when Chef of the Year Chris Januzzi will turn over the Chef of the Year trophy to the 2024 winner.
