[music plays throughout]
[David Bakker] We are a team comprised of students,
staff, and alumni from Humber College.
We're going to compete in the Culinary Olympics
in Erfurt, in Germany, the IKA,
um, which is one of the biggest culinary competitions in the world.
We have been practicing now for about a year and a half.
[James Bodanis] It's 3,000 competitors,
40 nations competing head to head over a four day competition.
And, uh, they'll be 60 regional teams,
15 per day, you know, vying for one gold medal.
[Annalisa] Being a part of team Humber, we've come a long way.
We've been practicing for quite a while now.
I'm really looking forward to going to Germany in the next few weeks,
and I think it's gonna be a great learning experience.
[Kire Boseovski] I am very stoked for my first Olympics.
Uh, very excited, uh, very, uh, stressful,
but, uh, you know, excitement overcomes that,
and, uh, happiness of actually being there
and doing it is a whole other thing.
[Alysha] It'll be an eye opener
to how other people in the world see their food,
and how they plate, and other dishes.
[Jonathan Wu] It's nice to be able to get out of the kitchen,
like, cooking kitchen,
and just do something like this sometimes,
'cause it's different.
[James] We wanna be out there, we want our,
you know, the industry to know that we have capable chefs,
uh, of training students, and at a world level.
And, uh, that's why we compete.
[Jonathon] It definitely felt great to win gold at the Culinary Olympics.
You know, we've been pushing through for a year and a half of hard work,
uh, commitment into this.
Um, and as you can tell, you know,
the results of winning gold, uh, definitely showed.
Um, and, you know, us as a team,
this really puts our, uh, careers forward,
something that we can bring with us to the future.
[Kire] For the school's reputation, it shows that the school's going
over and above, and showing that we do, um,
put ourselves forward i- into,
over and above just the industry itself,
and going to those extra competitions, extra things,
it shows that we're, uh, we're here, and we're involved as much as possible.
[Rudi Fischbacher] I think Humber has a deep, uh, history of competing.
Uh, we start off early in the training of the students
when it comes to an internal Iron Chef competition
we have at the end of the semester, where we have
first semesters and third semesters.
So we get that culture of competing,
showing their skills, honing their skills.
[Jonathon] So the, the experience in Germany
was, uh, definitely intense, insane.
Um, uh, just, you know, putting out those products,
everything has to be different, portioned properly.
It's weighed out by the judges.
It's, it's, honestly, i- it's over and beyond down there.
[David] You do it, you get in the moment,
you think, "Why am I doing this?" And, "I'm never gonna do this again."
You put it out, you torture yourself,
and then a week later, you're like, "Okay, let's do it again."
[James] Our students are getting first-hand training.
We have outside chefs working part-time here,
cutting edge, different restaurants around the city.
They're learning the latest techniques.
Uh, we give our students
the, the, you know, the right information,
and the right training to go out into the workforce
and be successful.
[Rudi] So that's part of our thing, that we really differentiate ourselves
to give them real world skills from the classroom,
apply them to a job,
an- and, also, having the opportunity
every four years to go to Olympics is, is great.
Uh, last time, we were in 2008 as a team,
uh, and getting gold this time around was very special.
Uh, and this is one of those things that we really,
uh, you know, cherish, uh, for many, many years.
[Jonathon] And, you know, this is great for me,
this is great for my career, really puts me, uh, over the top –
especially for employers, they look at stuff like this, you know?
And the teachers here really do care about their students.
And not a lot of schools are willing to take that extra time,
and, uh, put that commitment into their students.
And that's what I probably love the most about Humber.
[music fades out]