KCC Culinary Arts Students Win Gold Medal at Regional Competition

Kapiʻolani Community College
Contact:
Daniel Swift, (808) 734-9593
Coach
Kristen Cabral, (808) 956-5039
External Affairs & University Relations
Posted: Apr 22, 2003

Kapiʻolani Community College‘s Culinary Arts students won the gold medal at the Western Regional American Culinary Federation (ACF) conference, held from March 28 through April 1 in Portland, Oregon. The team of Daniel Swift (coach), Jason Jutz, Kerwin Wells Tugas, Shane Masutani, Chris Okuhara, and Tiffanie Luke represented the University of Hawaiʻi.

Two gold, four silver and three bronze medals were given at the competition. The Hawaiʻi team took second place behind Washington, who will go on to the nationals to represent the region. Nine states in the Western region sent teams of five students to prepare a signature four-course meal for a group of judges, who evaluated the teams‘ creations and performance on creativity, sanitation, taste and presentation.

The ACF is the oldest and largest organization of chefs and cooks in the United States. They present the opportunity to students for competition, professional recognition, and access to educational forums at local, regional, national and international events.

Each state in America has the opportunity to put forward a team, first at the state level to compete for the opportunity to represent their own state, after which the winner moves on to the regional competition. KCC won the state competition in Kailua-Kona in 2002, giving them the opportunity to compete in the regional competition. The winners from each of the four regions advance to the national competition this summer.