Photograph by Mark Gilliland
Executive chefs from four tony St. Louis country clubs stand in a corner of the kitchen at Old Warson Country Club. They sniff, poke, taste, frown. The group is wondering if it needs to tweak the recipe for the Asian duck crepes in a carrot-ginger vinaigrette yet again. This is probably the 40th time they’ve sampled the dish—and it’s still not perfect. “If it’s not perfect, it can’t go on a plate,” says Bellerive Country Club chef Kevin Storm.
The crepes are destined for the über-refined palates of the judges at the 2008 IKA International Culinary Art Competition, or “culinary Olympics,” October 19 to 22 in Erfurt, Germany. But the seasoned chefs of Old Warson, Bellerive, St. Louis Country Club and The Racquet Club Ladue didn’t make the crepes—their team of protégés did. Culinary wunderkinds Mike Bush, J.T. Gelineau, Mike Palazzola, Wayne Sieve and Kevin Taylor will represent the U.S. while going for the gold against more than 30 teams from around the world as this year’s American Culinary Federation Culinary Youth Team USA.
The young apprentices, ages 21 to 24, have been cooking up a storm over the past two years—on top of their jobs at the country clubs—to prepare for the Olympics. “It’s exciting. It’s nerve-racking. It’s crazy,” says Gelineau. The intense competition calls for the teams to whip up a buffet for eight, a three-course menu, a tasty dinner for 110 and a timed “relay” meal. It’s an astounding amount of work to turn out some enormously complex haute cuisine.
After cooking all day at work and then some to prepare for the competition, do these guys ever get tired of the kitchen? “It makes you a lot more apt to go out to eat,” admits Taylor. “But we all love cooking—that’s why we’re here.”
