Athens, Ga. – University of Georgia Food Services Chef Shelly Orozco-Marrs’ recipe of seared duck with pancetta and chevre polenta, thyme butter carrots, sautéed arugula and spiced Madeira cherry jus earned a silver medal March 8 in the 2013 National Association of College and University Food Services Southern Region Culinary Challenge at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.
Orozco-Marrs was one of six chefs selected to compete at the regional level, all preparing a dish that used duck as the mandatory ingredient. Other chefs were from Georgia Southern University, Oklahoma State University, University of North Carolina, University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Vanderbilt University.
This is the 13th regional NACUFS competition in which a UGA Food Services chef has competed. The university has had a chef selected every year since 2001.
The NACUFS Culinary Challenge recognizes outstanding food preparation and presentation skills in collegiate food service programs. Selection is based on many factors including originality, presentation, cooking methods and nutritional analysis. The total competition time for each competitor was 80 minutes with five minutes to set their stations, 60 minutes to cook, 10 minutes to plate four dishes and five minutes to clean and exit their stations.
The competition is judged and medals awarded by chefs from the American Culinary Federation. This is the second medal for Orozco-Marrs, who received a bronze in the 2011 Southern Region Culinary Challenge.
For more information on UGA Food Services, see http://foodservice.uga.edu/.
