Delhi's Hot Food Team Is Bound for National Championship

DELHI, NY (03/17/2010)(readMedia)-- SUNY Delhi's culinary team earned the title of regional champions this past weekend at the 2010 American Culinary Federation (ACF) Northeast Region Championship in Hershey, PA. The team will now compete for the National Championship in August at the ACF National Convention in Anaheim, CA.

This win gives Delhi its fifth regional championship title in nine years. Delhi is the only New York State team to have ever won the Northeast Region Championship.

Team members include: Sarah Thurgood, Team Captain, a fourth-year student from Bovina Center; Kenny Liranzo, a third-year student from New York City; Joe Michaud, a fourth-year student from Gansevoort; Julie Hernandez, a third-year student from Bainbridge; and Mike Specioso, a third-year student from Binghamton. Instructors Victor Sommo and James Margiotta coach Delhi's hot food team with Tom Recinella, CEC, AAC, culinary arts program director, serving as the team's manager.

SUNY Delhi's culinary hot food team is currently being filmed for a full-length documentary, Mise En Place. The documentary, produced by Kent Garrett Productions, is due to be released Summer-Fall 2011 and chronicles the work of Delhi's culinary team as the members compete, perform community service, and grow together as a family. The team also appeared on Fox & Friends Wednesday, March 17, on the Fox News Channel.

SUNY Delhi's culinary arts program is regarded as one of the best in the country. The program offers students a firm foundation in which to start their careers as culinary professionals. It progresses through basic skills dealing with Garde Manger, baking, sauces, stocks, etc., to the capstone course, Signatures by Candlelight, a full service fine dining restaurant that is open to the public and operated by SUNY Delhi students. In addition to the core classes, there are numerous culinary electives offered to help each student customize their portfolio of education. Depending on their interest or direction in the field, students can choose from electives such as advanced meat cutting, culinary competition, advanced pastries and confections, and culinary sculpting, which uses 300 pound ice blocks made on campus by culinary students in the college's own ice sculpting lab.