Chefs at Red Rocks Country Club, Morrison, Colo., have won top Colorado culinary competitions in a sweep of two statewide titles. This competition included the defending champions from Cherry Hills Country Club, Cherry Hills Village, Colo., who have held both prizes for the last two years.
Both competitions featured chefs from throughout the state representing a variety of dining venues, including fine dining and small proprietary restaurants, hotels, and culinary schools.
In the first competition, a four-person team representing Red Rocks Country Club won the American Culinary Federation’s 2009 Knoebel Cup for Colorado. In the second contest, the Colorado American Culinary Federation named Executive Chef Robert Meitzer 2009 Colorado Chef of the Year.
“These awards demonstrate that Chef Meitzer is not only an excellent chef, but he is an outstanding coach and mentor for our culinary team at Red Rocks Country Club,” says Mark Condon, General Manager of Red Rocks, a family-oriented private country club with a redesigned 18-hole golf course.
In the Knoebel Cup team competition, each member of the four competing teams prepared a different dish, one each of chicken, beef, lamb and dessert. Scoring of the individual dishes was totaled to determine the winning team. Red Rocks Country Club team was coached by Meitzer and included Scott Holmes, sous chef; Andy Ellis, banquet chef; Tim Winchester, sauté cook, and John Sebring, a student in the ACF apprenticeship program at Johnson and Wales University in Denver. “I’m very proud of our team. They really stepped up to this challenge and put their hearts into it,” Meitzer said.
The Colorado American Culinary Federation Colorado Chefs’ Association (ACF/CCA) sponsors the Chef of the Year competition. The individual chef competition required the seven competitors to prepare their versions of a beef tenderloin dinner. Meitzer prepared beef tenderloin with a tarragon morel Madeira sauce, swiss chard, fall vegetables and a contemporary shepherd’s pie. The winner was selected in a blind tasting behind closed doors by a panel of judges from ACF/CCA. Chef Meitzer also won the award in 2005.
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