Applied Health Sciences Best Chef Contest

AHS Best Chef logo with mixing bowl in the background.

Many of us have been practicing our cooking and baking the last few months and now it’s your time to shine! The Faculty of Applied Health Sciences (AHS) held an AHS Best Chef Contest and awarded two lucky participants for their creativity and presentation.

Contest rules

The contest will begin on July 27, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. EDT and end on August 5, 2020 at 9:00 p.m. EDT.

How to participate

  1. Prepare your cooked or baked masterpiece
  2. Include at least one ingredient with a name that starts with A, H, or S (e.g., avocado, honey, soya sauce)
  3. Snap a picture of your finished product with your dish’s name on a card or piece of paper in the photo (this will be cropped out before we share)
  4. Submit the recipe and picture of your item to the Applied Health Sciences Best Chef Contest Submission Form by the contest deadline

Winners will be selected from two categories, Judges' Pick and People’s Choice, and awarded their choice of a $25 gift card from Tim Horton’s, Amazon, or Skip the Dishes. Winning submissions and recipes will also be featured on our AHS website and social media platforms.

Judges' Pick

Judges' Pick will be awarded based on the following point system out of a total of nine points:

  • Use of A-H-S ingredients (one point per letter, each letter can only be counted once) - three points
  • Creativity and effort with recipe - three points
  • Overall presentation of item - three points

People's Choice

The People’s Choice award will be based on the voting results on the submissions that meet the contest criteria. These submissions will be compiled and shared on our AHS Facebook and AHS Instagram accounts for a voting period on Thursday, August 6, 2020.

The winning participant(s) will be contacted via email by August 11, 2020 to arrange details to receive their prize.

Rules

  1. This contest is only open to University of Waterloo Faculty of Applied Health Sciences undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty and staff. Incoming students are also welcome to participate if they are enrolled in fall 2020 courses.
  2. Submissions can be for one person or a small team. Note: Only one gift card will be awarded for each winning submission regardless of team size.
  3. Limit of one submission per person/team.
  4. Voting for the People’s Choice award is limited to one vote per person, per social media platform on August 6, 2020.
  5. Submissions must be for a cooked or baked item made from scratch.
  6. Submitted item must include at least one ingredient that starts with A, H or S. Each letter can only be counted once for a total of three points.
  7. Submitted photo must picture both the finished item and a card or piece of paper with the dish's name on it.
  8. Entries may not contain profanity, nudity, pornographic images, violent images, anti-competition messages, illegal material, drugs or alcohol, or material that violates the rights of third parties.
  9. By entering the contest, you consent to the University of Waterloo using any material submitted for promotional purposes without compensation or notice.
This contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram.

Spheres of different colours broken open to reveal soft filling.

Judges' Pick Winner

“I may be painted teal, but I bleed black and gold” Choux au Craquelin

Chef: Nathania Chan 

Program: Kinesiology

Title: Undergraduate student

Ingredients that start with A, H or S:  All-purpose flour, half-and-half, salt  

Choux au Craquelin - recipe

“I may be painted teal, but I bleed black and gold” Choux au Craquelin

Chef: Nathania Chan

Ingredient list

Craquelin crust

  • 3 tablespoons butter, softened 
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • pinch of salt
  • food colouring (optional)

Choux pastry

  • 1/2 cup cold water
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 3 eggs, at room temperature 

Pastry cream

  • 1 egg
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup corn starch
  • 2 cups half-and-half
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 4 tablespoons cold butter, cubed
  • 1/3 cup black sesame paste 

Recipe instructions

To make the pastry cream:

  1. Place egg and egg yolks into a mixing bowl. Add sugar, corn starch and salt. Whisk for 5 minutes until mixture turns pale yellow and is slightly thickened
  2. Place half-and-half and vanilla extract in a saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat until it starts simmering, then remove from heat
  3. Whisk a small splash of the hot liquid into the egg mixture, then continue adding the rest of the liquid. Continue stirring the mixture so you don’t scramble the eggs
  4. Transfer the mixture back into the saucepan and heat over medium heat, continuously whisking until it starts to thicken (pudding-like), about 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes
  5. Once mixture has cooled a bit, add cubed butter and stir until butter is completely melted and incorporated
  6. Divide the pastry cream into two, for black and gold. For black pastry cream, add black sesame paste, stirring until incorporated. For gold pastry cream, the colour should be sufficient, but feel free to add mango puree or others! 
  7. Store in a container, covering the surface of the pastry cream with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours until ready to fill choux pastry

To make the craquelin:

  1. Mix butter, brown sugar, all-purpose flour, and salt together in a bowl using a spatula, until it forms one uniform dough
  2. Split dough into separate pieces if using food colouring for desired colours. Knead food colouring into dough with hands or a spoon
  3. Place dough between two sheets of waxed paper and flatten dough to ¼ inch thickness
  4. Using a 2-inch cookie cutter (or any object in the house similar to this size), cut circles out of the dough. Scraps of dough can be re-rolled and flattened
  5. Place dough circles in the freezer while you make the choux pastry

To make the choux pastry:

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. To guide in piping the choux pastry, trace 2-inch circles onto the bottom side of the parchment paper, spaced at least 2 inches apart
  2. In a saucepan, add water, butter, and salt. Bring to a simmer over medium heat
  3. Place all-purpose flour into the saucepan and stir with a wooden spoon. Continue stirring until mixture starts to form into one smooth dough
  4. Once the dough pulls away from the bottom and sides of the saucepan, and only a thin film remains at the bottom of the pan, take it off the heat and transfer the dough to a mixing bowl to cool for about 10 minutes. To speed up this process, spread the dough out with a whisk. You can also soak the bottom of the bowl in a cold-water bath
  5. Meanwhile, crack eggs in a separate bowl and whisk
  6. When the dough is warm to the touch, add cracked eggs in, a bit at a time, whisking well after each addition. The dough should be cohesive and should not be runny, but pipeable 
  7. Scoop dough into a piping bag or Ziploc bag with the corner cut off. Pipe 2-inch mounds onto the baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart. You should get 8-10 choux pastries at this size 
  8. Take the craquelin topping out of the freezer and lightly push craquelin onto the tops of the piped choux pastry. Do not flatten, just press gently enough to stick them together!
  9. Bake at 375 degrees F for 30-40 minutes. When pastry has puffed up to a dome and starts browning, remove them from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack. After about 5 minutes, poke a hole at the bottom of the pastry for the pastry cream filling

Assembly:

  1. Place pastry cream in a piping bag or Ziploc bag with the corner cut off.
  2. Pipe as much pastry cream into the choux pastry as you want! Pastry cream should hold inside the pastry, so it may need to be refrigerated for longer if it is too runny

Makes 8-10 choux pastries.

People's Choice Winner

AHS Apple Honey Strawberry Pie

Chef: Sydney Perlmutar

Program: Recreation and Leisure Studies 

Title: Undergraduate student

Ingredients that start with A, H, or S: Apples, honey, strawberries 

Pie topped with crumble and strawberry.

AHS Apple Honey Strawberry Pie - recipe

AHS Apple Honey Strawberry Pie

Chef: Sydney Perlmutar

Ingredient list

For crumble

  •  1 cup softened butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup (gluten free) oats
  • 1.5 cup (gluten free) flour

For pie filling

  • 2.5 cups strawberries
  • 1 tbsp (gluten free) flour
  • 3 tbsp honey
  • 4 apples (peeled and cored)

Recipe instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Wash, core and peel the apples, cut into ¼ inch slices. Wash and cut the strawberries into quarters.
  2. In a standing mixer, cream the softened butter with brown sugar, add in oats and flour and blend. Spread half the crumble mixture on the bottom and up the sides of an 9” buttered baking dish. Lightly pat down.
  3. In a separate bowl combine strawberries and apple slices. Add honey and flour and toss with clean hands or spoon. Drain out any liquid.            
  4. Put fruit mixture into the crust and crumble the other half of the topping on top. If you run out of topping you can add some oats on top.
  5. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. When the crumble is ready remove and let cool or serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream
  6. Enjoy!!

Recipe makes 9" baking dish which serves about 8 people or more depending on how well the recipe turns out!