Executive Chef Darrell Janes won first place in the Pacific Northwest Canned Pear Service’s CAN DO Challenge for his submission of a Baked Caramelized Pear French Toast Casserole.
The CAN DO Challenge is an annual contest where professionals across the country from non-commercial foodservice operations submit creative dishes that use Pacific Northwest canned pears.
“Usually, the campus chefs are so busy in our daily workload, we rarely have an opportunity to seek out and participate in these types of challenges,” Janes said.
The contest opened for submissions in January and closed in May. Finalists were announced in June, before the top three winners were announced in August. Evaluation of the dishes was broken up into three categories: plate appeal, flavor appeal and creative appeal.
“I was honestly surprised that I had won first place. I had looked at the past years’ entries and there were some great looking dishes, and the level of competition was extremely high,” Janes wrote in an email to Mustang News.
For Janes’ first time competing in the challenge, his experience in campus dining influenced his approach to the CAN DO Challenge by utilizing Cal Poly’s “zero waste approach.” This led him to utilize everything from the pear juice to the pear itself.
The idea for the casserole itself originated from an idea where Janes had to simulate and elevate classic bread pudding.
“During the preparation, I tried a few different recipes and based on feedback from the samples passed out, I decided to go with the Baked Caramelized Pear French Toast Casserole,” Janes said. “I plated a few versions of the dish, and our awesome marketing team took some great submission photos and sent it for consideration.”
Baked Caramelized Pear French Toast Casserole will soon make its way to the Cal Poly dining menu. Brunch in Vista Grande will be hosting a “Love, Campus Dining” event on Nov. 3 where students can sample the award-winning dish.