One would have thought that when Katie Paterson graduated from Holland College’s Culinary Institute of Canada last year and accepted a position in a restaurant in Ireland, that would have been adventurous enough for the 22-year-old from Upper Amherst Cove, Newfoundland – but apparently not.

With less than a month’s notice, she packed her bags and flew to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, to represent Canada as a junior chef at the World Association of Chefs Society World Congress 2008 in May. Usually chefs take many months to prepare for such a high-profile international competition; but on such short notice, Katie managed to prepare herself so well that she won a silver medal and an award for best kitchen hygiene.

“To prepare, I read through all my old competition recipes and reviewed the time lines,” she explained.

There was really little other preparation that she could have done for the black box competition, as competitors do not know what ingredients they had to work with until the day before the event.

As fate would have it, Chef Instructor Richard Braunauer from The Culinary Institute of Canada was in Dubai for the competitions, and offered to help Katie in the days leading up to the competition.

“He helped me come up with my menu and with my time management. We were only given an hour to develop the menu, and he helped me with some great ideas,” she said.

Chef Braunauer, who had been one of Katie’s instructors when she was a student at the culinary institute, was thrilled with her success at the competition, which featured junior chefs from 12 other countries.

"Katie's accomplishment on the world stage is an incredible feat, but not entirely surprising,” he said.
“She has always been a dedicated and focused culinarian. Katie has such a great spirit and is a joy to be around and work with. Her result in Dubai only further shows how successful she will be in the future."

After the competition, Katie returned to Nosh Restaurant in Dalkey, just outside of Dublin, where she has been working as a chef for several months.

In this picture: Katie Paterson and Chef Instructor Richard Braunauer celebrate the junior chef's success at the World Association of Chefs Society World Congress 2008 in Dubai, UAE recently. Paterson garnered a silver medal and an award for best kitchen hygiene when she competed with junior chefs from 12 other countries.