Local Businesses Take a Bite Out of Cancer

The St. Thomas University conference centre filled with people on Thursday night for Fredericton’s annual Cook for The Cure Competition.

The ballroom was lined up with nine stations that were run by a variety of different businesses. The businesses were paired up with expert chefs for a cook-off. Attendees got to taste nine different dishes and vote for their favourite. All the proceeds from the cook-off go to the Canadian Cancer Society.

St. Thomas’ executive chef Michael Greer and his team “Innocent Until Proven Grill-ty” took home first place for the second year in a row.

This was also the second year he teamed up with Stewart McKelvey.

“I am hearing rumours they want to go for a third! But anyways, it was a great time really, and of course everyone was a winner here tonight,” said Greer.

Around 250 people were in attendance, and teams were put to the test.

There were a variety of dishes that featured different styles of food. Such as sous vide lamb, pork croquettes and ice cream with a crispy curry topping.

After sampling all the dishes voters placed a single golden spoon into a sealed box of their choice.

For Greer and his team, a bacon-wrapped beef tenderloin paired with white chocolate panna cotta was the golden ticket.

“We do everything as a team, we are a very close tight-knit team. We tried a couple of different beef recipes and we figured out what would work for this event.”

Jessica Fitzherbert of the Canadian Cancer Society says that a fundraiser of this size takes almost a year to plan.

“It’s a matter of going out and finding the teams. Finding chefs who are also willing to pair with the teams and give up their time, oversee the team and then putting together all the dishes and the food. We also try to find as many donated partners as we can.”

STU was one of these partners. The university has donated the conference centre for the last two years. This helped cut costs so more money could be raised.

 

The hard work that goes into the cook-off doesn’t just fall on the organizers. For six months the teams worked on fundraising and have pledged to raise $5,000 by the end of January.

They do so by selling tickets, hosting silent auctions, and in other creative ways.

The cook-off has been running for three years and this year raised over $30,000.

“That was the real big point behind it for us. The driving point for this was the people that this event benefited.”