Meet a group of young Canadians who have embarked on a remarkable journey – a journey that will consume their lives for the next two years, provide them with invaluable experience, hone their skills, and steel their resolve to be the best in the business – a journey that will change their lives forever. Meet Culinary Youth Team Canada.

These nine young chefs, all of whom trained at Holland College’s Culinary Institute of Canada, have been selected to represent the country in the most prestigious international culinary competition in the world, the Internationale Kochkunst Ausstellung, more commonly known as the Culinary Olympics, in Erfurt, Germany in October of 2008.

The Culinary Institute of Canada earned the right to represent Canada at the Culinary Olympics in a competition held last June in Quebec. There, CIC students Tim Leamont of Arcadia, Nova Scotia, and Martin Gouthro of Frenchvale, Nova Scotia competed against students from culinary schools across the country at Buckingham College in Quebec to determine which province would represent Canada on the international scene for the next few years. Tim and Martin are both now members of the 2008 team.

This is the second time in a row that students from the Culinary Institute of Canada have formed Culinary Youth Team Canada. At the World Culinary Olympics in Germany in October 2004, the team earned a gold medal for their performance in the Cold Salon and a silver medal for their Hot Kitchen work.

The Internationale Kochkunst Ausstellung was first conceived of in 1896. The first competitions were held in Frankfurt from 1900 to 1996, when they were then moved to Berlin, and then to Erfurt for subsequent competitions. The first competition included four nations competing in a local cooking contest at the Frankfurt fairgrounds. Since that time, the event has grown to more than 750 chefs from 31 nations, and has events for individual competitors as well as national, regional, student, and military teams. The young chefs who compete in the Culinary Olympics find the experience opens doors for them in the fast-paced, growing field of hospitality.

Culinary Youth Team Canada are not just training for the most important competition of their lives, they are also training to be leaders in the industry. Hailing from Saskatchewan, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, and all under the age of 23 years, the chefs share a common bond – their training at the Culinary Institute of Canada, located in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. For the next two years, this will be their home base as they undertake grueling training in preparation for competitions leading up to the Culinary Olympics, and for the Culinary Olympics itself.

On average, each chef will log more than 60 hours per week in the kitchens at the CIC. And that’s on top of their regular work and school schedules. They know that they are in for the toughest challenge of their young lives, and they are more than prepared to pick up the gauntlet…or in this case, the oven mitt!

They already have many fans across the country, and Canadian food companies and growers are eager to ensure that they are able to showcase ingredients that represent the diversity and high quality of Canadian ingredients in competition. Canada has some of the finest and most sought after products in the world and Youth Team Canada will be using this to their advantage.

Be sure to visit this page often for updates on the team’s progress.