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Student Successes
What are they up to now? Our students come to Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts from around the globe. They leave home to explore the world and return home with a career.
Awards & Medals
For the second year in a row, the PICA Baking & Pastry student team have won their category in the annual Gingerbread competition at the Hyatt regency in Vancouver. The students worked long hours in November and Decembeer preparing their ‘Santa’s Workshop’ themed gingerbread house complete with a hardworking army of sugar elves.
Two-day cooking competition for culinary students and industry apprentices. Students from PICA competed against students from AI and VCC as well as apprentices from Kettle of Fish, The Fairmont and the Hyatt. They created a three-course menu on Day 1 for which they were also judged for their service; Day 2 they participated in two black-box heats. Scores for both days were tallied and added together to determine which team was the Best of the West! Team PICA didn’t win, but the team did well in many aspects of the competition and most importantly had a great time. The winning team was the apprentices of the Hyatt (one of whom was a PICA graduate!)
| Alexandra Kanal | Gold Medal |
| Howard Lee | Gold Medal |
| Kent Bretzlaff | Silver Medal |
| Megan Bishop | Silver Medal |
| Daniel Yung | Silver Medal |
| Kyle Bruce | Silver Medal |
An apprentice is defined as an individual currently enrolled in a cook training apprenticeship program in Canada. Once an individual has earned their Red Seal, they are ineligible to compete at this level and must compete at the Professional Level.
Magavon Toby (Sept 07 Culinary Arts) - Gold Medal (Hyatt Regency Hotel, Vancouver)
Magavon Toby David Van Huren
TEAM
The team category will consist of one Student or Apprentice, one Journeyman and one server. Each establishment may send only one Team.
Dave Van Haren (June 06 Culinary Arts) - Gold Medal and Gold Overall in Team Catergory (CTC Food Services Ltd, Abbotsford).
Congratuations to all present and past students on a JOB WELL DONE !!!
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Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts placed THIRD in the 'Best of the West' Culinary Competition held at the BC Hospitality Industry Conference and Exposition (BCHICE) November 24th and 25th, 2008. Student competitors were Thompson Tran, Ross Alexander, Edwin Yong and Samantha Cheng.
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Congratulations to our Pastry Team for placing FIRST (by the judges) at the Hyatt Regency Annual Gingerbread Lane Competition on November 25th, 2008. Student competitors were Austen Neil, Darren Rella, Eloise Chiew and Shari Griffith.
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The BC Chef's Association 'HOT Competition Live' was held Sunday, January 27th 2008 at the BC Food Service Expo at BC Place, Vancouver. Four students from Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts participated in the Post-Secondary School Category.
From Left to Right:
Magavon Toby, Nicholas De Zubiria, Executive Chef Julian Bond, Alex Hon and Trevor Kossluk.
In their heats, each student was awarded the following:
GOLD - Magavon Toby
GOLD - Nicholas De Zubiria
SILVER - Alex Hon
BRONZE - Trevor Kossluk
Two of our students also placed in the overall category, for the highest scores of the entire competition:
1st Overall - Magavon Toby
3rd Overall - Nicholas De Zubiria.
Congratulations to Magavon, Nicholas, Alex and Trevor!
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James Winget earned a Silver Medal and Alvaro Lobon Vega, Jenna Mawjee, Carmen Rayne and Donovan Ungaro earned Bronze Medals in the College level Hot Competition Live at the March 2007 Foodservice Expo at BC Place in Vancouver. All 5 students are graduates of our September 2006 Culinary Arts program.
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Grace Cheng, Eliane Kanayuk-Gabriel, Antonio Ng and Isabel Li, graduates of our September 2006 Baking & Pastry program, received second place at The Chef's Table Society of BC First Annual Culinary Challenge on February 19, 2007 held at the Terminal City Club. Their delicious creation was a Saltspring Island goat's cheese cake with Quail's Gate Reisling Ice Wine aspic on top of a huckleberry preserve and white chocolate sable.
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Olivia Sin, a graduate of our January 2006 Culinary Arts program and Catherine Stewart, who is currently attending our April 2006 Culinary Arts program, tied for First Place at the Alcan Aluminum Chef competition on June 18, 2006.
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Spencer Watts, a graduate of our Culinary Arts program, January 2001, won the 2006 Eat! Vancouver Iron Chef Award.
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Ryan Boyle, Jane Copeland, Dianna Morley and Christie Okawara earned Silver medals in the College level Hot Competition, at the March 2006 BC Foodservice Expo in Vancouver. All four students attended our October 2005 Culinary Arts program.
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Andrea MacLean and Fumiko Moreton, graduates of our September 1999 Culinary Arts program, work at the prestigious Terminal City Club in Vancouver, BC. Fumiko earned First Place in the annual Quady Winery Dessert Competition in February 2005. Andrea competed in the annual BC Restaurant and Foodservice Association Expo in Vancouver, March 2005, to defend her Iron Chef title in the professional category.
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Dominique Laurencelle, Jeffery Mickelson and Clarence de Silva, students of our September 2004 Culinary Arts program, all earned Bronze Medals at the 2005 BC Restaurant & Foodservice Association Annual Hot Competition.
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Vanessa Wong and Louise Pickles, both of our September 2003 Culinary Arts program, earned the Silver Medal and Bronze Medal respectively at the 2004 BC Restaurant & Foodservice Association Annual Hot Competition.
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Niall Wolfram, of our September 2002 Culinary Arts program, earned the Bronze Medal at the 2003 International Food Expo’s BC Restaurant & Foodservice Association Annual Hot Competition.
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Ryan Gustafson, a graduate of our July 2001 Culinary Arts class, was awarded the 2002 Frank Baker Student of the Year award at a gala dinner at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
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Mark Perrier, an April 2000 Culinary Arts graduate, won the 2002 Black Box Competition for Apprentice Chefs.
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Tyler Shedden, a graduate of our September 2001 Culinary Arts program and September 2002 Baking & Pastry Arts program, earned a Silver Medal at the 2002 BC Restaurant & Foodservice Association Annual Hot Competition.
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Nat Brewster and Nicolas Martín del Campo, graduates of our January 2001 Culinary Arts program, were awarded a Gold Medal for Best Dessert and a Silver Medal for Best Entrée at the 2002 BC Healthy Chef Competition.
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Andrew Fung, a July 1998 Culinary Arts graduate, was a member of the 2002 Culinary Team Alberta and won the Culinary World Cup in Luxembourg. Andrew went on to complete in the 2003 Swiss Culinary Cup. Andrew also received a Silver Medal and a Bronze Medal at the FHA Competition held in Singapore.
Accolades
40 Foodies under 40’ l – October 2009 issue of Westernliving magazine.
"In our second annual listing, meet the new generation of passionate chefs, restaurateurs, food producers, wine and spirit experts and activists who are helping to define and change the way we eat in Western Canada today."
CHEF CATEGORY
Lawrence Munn, Culinary Arts, Sept 1998
Café Brio Victoria
At $40 per head, the steal of a family meal at Brio could only be created by a dude who loves cooking and serving great food.
Daniel Walker, Culinary Arts, Sept 1997
Weczeria, Saskatoon
No one captures the tastes of the prairies as well or as unpretentiously as Walker, who nodded to his roots in naming his restaurant (created with partner Nicole Walker) after the Ukranian word for the evening meal.
RESTAURAEUR CATEGORY
Lucais Syme, Culinary Arts, Sept 2003
La Quercia, Vancouver
It’s new, it’s small, it’s authentically Italian and it’s packed to the rafters. These La Buca alumni are onto a recession-proof restaurant formula.
Janik Livera, recent graduate of the April 2009 Culinary Arts program, has been chosen as 1 of 11 competitors in the International Tapas Contest that will be held November 7-13, 2009 in Spain. Good luck Janik!
Meredith Bacher was a graduate of our April 2001 Culinary Arts program and September 2001 Baking & Pastry Arts program. Meredith is employed at Macrina Bakery & Café in Seattle WA, which was nominated by the James Beard Foundation for the Outstanding Pastry Chef award.
Simon Manvell was a graduate of our January 1997 Culinary Arts program and Chef at Dock 503 Waterfront Café in Sidney, BC. The restaurant was the recipient of the Critics Choice for Excellence in Dining award. This award was presented by the Victoria Hospitality Group and EAT Magazine at the Annual Victoria Restaurant Association Awards dinner at the Empress Hotel in 2001.
Julie Puchmayr graduated from our April 1997 Culinary Arts program, and today is Chef Pâtissière of the esteemed Le Crocodile restaurant in Vancouver, BC. For over 20 years the restaurant has been considered by many the best classical French restaurant in the city.
Jordan Forester, a January 1998 Culinary Arts graduate, is Chef/Owner of the West End Station Bistro in Ottawa, ON and also owns 3 other restaurants in the Ottawa area. The restaurant regularly receives positive reviews in the media as a fine example of classical bistro cuisine.
James Schenk, of our April 1998 Culinary Arts program, is the successful Chef/Owner of Destino restaurant in San Francisco, CA. Destino was named Best New Business of San Francisco for the year 2000 and has earned many awards and laudatory reviews. James is also the founder of the events company, JLS Corporation, and a board member of the San Francisco Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Cheryl Wakerhauser of our January 2000 Baking & Pastry Arts program, is Chef/Owner of popular Pix Patisserie in Portland, OR, earning strong reviews in local and national media. In July 2003, Cheryl earned Second Place in the Schokinag Chocolate North America Pastry Recognition Event. More recently, Cheryl opened a bistro next door to her shop named Bar Pastiche, which soon received a positive review in April 2005 Food & Wine magazine.
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