Her finale dinner Friday continues a tradition of the outgoing honoree designing, cooking and serving a dinner to remember and to raise money for scholarships.
Dorn's dinner spotlights local products, the hot new trend in dining this year, according to several food magazines. The dinner is at the University of Montana, whose Farm to College program - integrating more locally grown and made products - is a big success.
Having the dinner at UM also makes sense for another reason: Dorn is an instructor at UM's College of Technology Culinary Arts Program, a two-year program for students pursuing professional culinary careers.
In the year since earning her title, Dorn left her catering job to focus on her passion for teaching. At the COT, she teaches nutrition, restaurant menu development and design, and patisserie, the art of fine desserts. After hours, she teaches home and hobby cooks at the Dickinson Lifelong Learning Center.
She's also been a student herself, earning her chef de cuisine certification, proof in the culinary world of professional advancement and ability. In larger restaurants, the chef de cuisine reports to the executive chef and manages all aspects of the kitchen.
“It isn't a small undertaking,” she said. “It's a mile marker. As chefs, we want to know we are moving in the right direction,” taking on new challenges and professional goals, she said.
Dorn coaches some of the student competition teams at the COT, and is the mentor for students' Capstone Dinner, the gourmet, for-the-public final exam designed and executed by graduating culinary students.
This year's Capstone Dinner is April 21.
Each course for Dorn's dinner Friday is built around local products: first course, Montana Whitefish Chowder accented with crème fraîche and whitefish caviar; second course, Montana Beef Satay over Gingered Carrot Slaw and Cilantro Oil ; a palate-cleansing “intermezzo” of sorbet from Missoula's Big Dipper Ice Cream; the main course, Wild Mushroom-stuffed Free Range Chicken Breast with Beluga Lentils and Roasted Root Vegetables; and dessert, chevre-filled phillo drizzled with honey.
The beef satay “is the one I'm most worried about,” she said. “With any kebab, there's a fine line between being overdone and being just right.”
“I'm really proud of the chicken dish; it's the one I made for my certification,” she said. “It's a wonderfully earthy dish, with the mushrooms, the lentils and the root vegetables. I'm excited about the colors, too.”
The dessert, a poached apple with Montana honey, shows off “really simple flavors.”
Among the Montana companies donating ingredients are Big Dipper Ice Cream of Missoula, Mountain Lake Fisheries in Columbia Falls, Timeless Seeds in Conrad, Montana Legend Premium Angus Beef of Red Lodge, Prairie Sunshine Honey in Victor, Amaltheia Dairy in Bozeman, Mission Mountain and Flathead Lake wineries, and Garden City Fungi of Missoula.
On Friday, Dorn turns over her title to the 2007 Chef of the Year, Tom Campbell, president of the Montana Chefs Association and director of UM's Culinary Arts Program.
Campbell said his goal will be to reach out to professional chefs around the state.
And he's already starting to plan his own finale dinner.
“It's a little competitive,” he said. “It's a huge opportunity to really market who we are as chefs.”
Time to dine
Tickets to Friday's 2007 Chef of the Year banquet are still available. Get them online, using PayPal, at www.acfmontanachefs.org; or by phone from the College of Technology, 243-7831; The Shack Restaurant, 549-9903; or the Montana Chefs Association, 244-0158.
The reception begins at 6 p.m., with dinner promptly at 6:30 p.m., in the University of Montana University Center's North Ballroom.
Tickets are $75 each. All proceeds benefit the Montana Chefs Association Scholarship Fund.
Entertainment is by pianist Dylan McShane of Bozeman, a friend of Melinda Dorn's.
COT's Campbell voted 2007 Chef of the Year
Tom Campbell, director of the University of Montana College of Technology Culinary Arts Program for the past four years, has been voted the 2007 Chef of the Year, taking over the title Friday from outgoing honoree Melinda Dorn.
Campbell has been a champion for students, the professionalism of restaurants and kitchens, and for the Montana Chefs Association, an organization he headed as president for four years.
He's spent nearly 35 years, since his dishwasher days at the Air Force Academy Officers Club, in culinary fields. He earned the title of certified executive chef and is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.
Campbell taught for six years at the Art Institute of Seattle before joining UM's Culinary Arts Program. Other career highlights include fine-dining cooking experience at the four-star, classic French cuisine restaurant Jonah and the Whale in Bellevue, Wash., working with Culinary Olympic Gold Medal-winning chef Dietmar Jeager, and apprenticing in New York City at the Peninsula Hotel's Adrienne Restaurant, learning the Asian/French-fusion inspired cuisine of chef Gray Kuntz.
Campbell also has owned his own restaurant, consulting firm and catering business; served as a corporate executive chef; and has worked with many charitable organizations and on many community events throughout the years.
Reporter Mea Andrews can be reached at 523-5246 or at mandrews@missoulian.com.
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