Martin Juneau, The Gold medal plate competition

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CLI ENT:: CLIENT MARTIN JUNEAU J OURSDE LATERRE THE GOLD MEDAL PLATES 2011 COMPETITION datedel’ événement: 22AVRI L201 2 ROSEMONDE COMMUNICATIONS Service des relations publiques et de presse

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Martin Juneau of Montreal's Newtown Wins Gold at The 2011 Canadian Culinary Championships

MONTREAL, Feb. 22 /CNW Telbec/ - TheNewtown team is extremely proud to announce that Chef de Cuisine, Martin Juneau won Gold in the 2011 Canadian Culinary Championships, which was held February 18th and 19th in Kelowna, BC. The National Golden Plate Award is the ultimate celebration of Canadian Excellence in cuisine.

This outstanding achievement only confirms Martin's extensive talent and unique capacity to consistently create exceptional and simple dishes with a sharp eye for the finest in fresh produce and a focus on the quality of the core ingredient. Martin Juneau has a genuine hands-on approach and is involved in each stage of the dish planning. Unparalleled in execution and presentation, Chef Juneau's cuisine is innovative yet simple.

"I am delighted and overwhelmed with the award. Most chefs cook with the hope and aspiration of recognition from our guests and the industry but this award has left me a little lost for words," says Martin Juneau.

James Chatto, Gold Medal Plates national culinary advisor and head judge was

very impressed with this year's competitors. Experienced veterans and eager young blood battled for the recognition to be called the best in Canada. He said: "It was a very strong competition with at least four chefs who were within reach of the victory before the Grand Finale. Judges were amazed at the technical brilliance of the dishes and wine matches. In the end we were unanimous in giving the gold silver and bronze medals".

"Martin's food is brilliantly understated, simply executed, theatrically presented and never fails to impress. I ate the food before I met the man behind it and was instantly convinced that Martin's raw talent was the missing ingredient in a reworked unpretentious and more fun Newtown. Martin has only been with us for a month and it would be fair to say that he has taken both us and our guests at Newtown with a bit of a storm. We are all tremendously excited about Martin's Gold achievement at the National Golden Plate Award", explains Brian Bendix, CEO of Stambac International.

Martin Juneau took the helm of the kitchen at Newtown in January 2011 where he cooks in a creative partnership with Executive Chef Daren Bergeron. www.lenewtown.com Notes to Editors: Newtown was acquired by a partnership between Tom Nacos and Marcel Elefant from Jacques Villeneuve in 2009 and forms part of the Tom Nacos Group of Restaurant. TNG also owns Decca 77, Weinstein's & Gavino's, Guido and Angelina as well as Burges & Benedicts.

Stambac International is the managing company of TNG and Newtown.

Interviews with Martin Juneau can be scheduled through the contacts below.

About Gold Medal Plates Gold Medal Plates is the ultimate celebration of Canadian Excellence in cuisine, wine, entertainment and athletic achievement. Celebrating in eight cities across Canada in 2010, Gold Medal Plates will feature superb wines and the premier chefs in each city, paired with Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes, in a competition to crown a gold, silver and bronze medal culinary team in each city, and subsequently nation- wide at the Canadian Culinary Championships.

Founded in 2003, the goal of Gold Medal Plates is to raise substantial funds for Canada's high performance athletes, while celebrating Canadian excellence.

Since 2004, this event has received tremendous support and accolades all across Canada, and generated a combined net total of $5 million for Canada's Olympic and Paralympic athletes! For more information, visit the Gold Medal Plates website www.goldmedalplates.com.

SOURCE Martin Juneau For further information: Press Relations: Rosemonde Gingras Rosemonde@videotron.ca +1 514-458-8355 Director of Marketing: Marie-Claude Landry mclandry@stambac.com +1 514-564-6798

Organization Profile Martin Juneau More on this organization Newtown More on this organization

Find this article at: http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/martin-juneau-of-montreals-newtown-wins-gold-at-the2011-canadian-culinary-championships-507725561.html

Martin Juneau, meilleur chef canadien! À l’origine de La Montée de lait et nouveau Chef de Cuisine au Newtown, le chef Martin Juneau vient de récolter de prestigieux honneurs au «Gold Medal Plates».

Daren Bergeron et Martin Juneau

Le Championnat Culinaire qui se déroulait les 18 et 19 février 2011 à Kelowna en Colombie-Britannique a récompensé plusieurs personnalités du monde de la cuisine, alors que la récompense ultime, le Golden Plate Award, est revenue au jeune chef québécois, Martin Juneau, pour l’ensemble de son oeuvre. Lors de cette compétition durant laquelle s’affrontait des vétérans d’expérience autant que de jeunes chefs ambitieux, les juges ont pu constater que le talent était au rendez-vous. Impressionnés par les techniques ingénieuses investies dans les plats et du mariage avec les vins, ils ont avoués que la compétition était musclée et de haut calibre cette année.

Cependant, tous ont été unanimes quant à l’attribution de la plus haute marche du podium qui est revenue à Martin Juneau.

«Je suis enchanté et ému de ce couronnement. La plupart des Chefs cuisinent dans l’espoir et l’aspiration de reconnaissance des clients et de l’industrie, mais en ce moment les mots me manquent pour exprimer mes sentiments» a-t-il confié.

Un vent de changement Martin Juneau, qui a mis sur pied le populaire La Montée de Lait, vient de se joindre à l’équipe du Newtown aux côté du chef exécutif Daren Bergeron. Brian Bendix, un des propriétaires de l’endroit, explique: «La cuisine de Martin est brillamment modeste et simplement exécutée, présentée d’une façon théâtrale et ne cesse jamais d’impressionner. J’ai mangé sa cuisine avant de rencontrer l’homme et j’ai été instantanément convaincu que son talent pur était l’ingrédient manquant dans un Newtown retravaillé, sans prétention et plus le fun! Martin s’est joint à notre équipe depuis un mois seulement et il serait juste de dire qu’il nous a entraîné dans un tourbillon. Nous sommes tous immensément excités de l’accomplissement de Martin d’avoir obtenu «The Golden Plate Award».

À propos de Gold Medal Plates Gold Medal Plates est la célébration ultime de l’excellence canadienne en matière culinaire, vinicole, hospitalière et athlétique. Fondée en 2003, son objectif est de recueillir des fonds pour les athlètes canadiens les plus performants, tout en célébrant l’excellence canadienne.

C’est la deuxième fois que la suprématie est accordée à un chef québécois, Matthieu Cloutier du Kitchen Gallerie ayant gagné l’an dernier.

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April 5, 2011

Beet this: The lowly root vegetable is now a star ingredient

By Sasha Chapman

They're pretty, they're cheap and they're perfectly suited to Canada's climate. No wonder we love them It was an unlikely root vegetable that won the day at the Canadian Culinary Championships in Kelowna, B.C. Recently, the winning chef, Montreal's Martin Juneau of Newtown restaurant, featured beets in three delicious ways at the sold-out gala: in a purple-red purée; sliced paper-thin and gently pickled with onion and dill; and as a glaze for the perfectly crisp crackling on an irresistible square of St.-Canut pork belly. The effect was confidently Canadian. And he paired the dish, not with wine, but with a delicious russet apple hard cider from La Face Cachée.

Humble fare for a high-end cooking competition. But not entirely unexpected.

Some of the country's hottest culinary trends are played out in the dishes created for this annual event. During five years of judging, I have watched the role played by local ingredients in general (and beets in particular) grow significantly. Foie gras and truffles have been demoted to supporting roles, when they are cast at all. Molecular gastronomy is employed more judiciously than it used to be. And now with the crowning of Mr. Juneau, Canada's love affair with the beet is official.

Even international chefs with Michelin stars are elevating the root vegetable to a star ingredient. At the Parisian three-star L'Arpège, Alain Passard (who famously does not cook with red meat) features an ode to beets on his tasting menu, naming each variety (presumably the common Burpee variety does not sound quite so unappetizing in French) and slow-roasting them in a crust of sel de Guérande. At Manresa, David Kinch's two-star restaurant in the Bay Area south of San Francisco, he transforms the sweet vegetable into a granita that is paired with a chocolate sorbet and hazelnut tartine.

For chefs who care about local seasonal ingredients (which is to say nearly every cook with a pulse and a Twitter account), beets have emerged as the go-to ingredient, winter's and early spring's answer to the tomato. It's not hard to see why: Beets are pretty to look at, they are relatively cheap, and they store well through the winter. They are perfectly suited to the harsh realities of Canada's northern climate.

Just as New World winemakers often compare their soil and climatic conditions with those of Old World regions winemakers in Prince Edward County, Ont., are forever likening the local soil to that of Burgundy - you can draw the same parallels with food crops. According to Michael Symons, an Australian food historian who famously divided up Australia's growing regions along climatic lines, Ontario and Quebec growing conditions are very similar to those in Central Europe and Northern China. That observation came flooding back to me as I took my first bite of Mr. Juneau's pork belly and beet dish, which tasted almost Hungarian with its sweet-and-sour dill-inflected flavour.

But when Mr. Juneau, presented the final dish to the judges' table, he simply shrugged. "I wanted to show you something typical of Quebec. Where I come from, we have a lot of beets at this time of year."

The dish would have been even more of a treat if I had not eaten 10 other dishes featuring beets that day, cooked by chefs who hailed from eight cities across the country, including an irresistible popsicle of beets and ice wine, made by Frank Dodd of Hillebrand Winery in Ontario. The night before the competition began, at a dinner at Mr. Swarowski's sparkly Sparkling Hill spa, executive chef Ross Derrick had prepared a beet "sponge" that became the talking point of the seven-course meal: juiced beets combined with gelatin and whipped into a froth of a daydream.

Not all beets are created equal; much depends on the variety and the way they are grown. David Cohlmeyer, vegetable grower to many of Ontario's star chefs, grows several unusual varieties of beets on his farm in Cookstown, Ont., from the sweet candy cane Chioggia beets that first appeared in Venetian markets in the early 1800s to the cylindrical beets that chefs love because they are so much easier to slice and dice evenly.

According to Mr. Cohlmeyer, beets are also one of those vegetables that can be produced cheaply in mediocre soil, which can yield bitter, woody results. Farmers used to send those lesser quality beets to local processing plants. With the disappearing market for pickled beets - not to mention the closures of the local plants that processed them - beet sales have not increased significantly, despite their apparent ubiquity at the farmers' markets.

But like so many things in life, you get what you pay for: Shoppers still leery of their grandmother's tasteless roots may be surprised to discover that a bunch of beets from an organic farmer doesn't need to be pickled to death to taste good. You can simply roast it with a little salt and pepper and olive oil (as Alice Waters does) or slice it thinly and serve it raw. As Craig Flinn, a straight-talking chef from Halifax likes to say, "Great farmers are sometimes the best prep cooks you can have."

Which makes me wonder about next year's star ingredient for Canada's top chefs. Turnips, anyone?

Special to the Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail, Inc.

LEISURE / FOOD & DRINK / FOOD & RECIPES See also: culinary competition

The Gold Medal Plates 2011 November 6, 2011 8:15 PM MST

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Scallop draped with smoked duck served on polenta, topped with a fois gras bombe! David Ferguson - Le Jolifou Kevin Braun

The Gold Medal Plates 2011

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The Gold Medal Plates 2011 event was held on October 27th at Windsor Station, to raise funds for the Canadian Olympic Foundation to support Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Montreal was one of the nine participating Canadian cities in this year’s event.

The Gold Medal Plates 2011 Competition Ten of the best local chefs, selected by a national and regional panel of judges, presented their unique dish with the expectation of winning a gold, silver or bronze medal.

Kevin Braun

Each of the ten dishes sampled displayed the chef’s passion for his profession. The ambience was energizing while visiting the stations and savouring each dish. The dishes were appealing, had a unique flavour and texture, and were paired with a Canadian wine or beverage.

The evening’s theme, with a red, white and blue décor and background Beatle music, was indigenous to the 2012 London summer Olympics.

As part of the fundraising, a silent auction was held during the competition.

The Award Ceremony

The keynote speaker was Alexandre Bilodeau, Gold Medallist in Freestyle Skiing and Canada’s first Gold Medallist on home soil. A live auction was held before announcing the Gold Medal Plate awards.

The Gold Medal Plates 2011 Winners Gold Medallist Jean-Philippe St-Denis - Kitchen Galerie Poisson.

Dish: Vitello Tonnato Paired with McAuslan Brewery St. Ambroise Cream Ale Jean-Philippe St. Denis will compete for Canada’s top chef title in the Gold Medal Plates Finale to be held February 2012 in Kelowna, British Columbia.

Silver Medallist Danny St Pierre – Auguste Dish: Maple beer braised beef, rutabaga purée, Alfred le fermier cheese, garlic fried bread Paired with Siboire McEis Scotch Ale de Glace Bronze Medallist Nick Hodge – Kitchenette Dish: BBQ Kamouraska eel in crispy chicken skin taco, sea urchin, green goddess dressing, pickled granny smith apple Paired with Creemore Springs Brewery Premium Lager Visit the Gold Medal PlatesWeb site for information on the upcoming Gold Medal Plates events.

2011 Competing Chefs  Daren Bergeron - Decca 77  David Ferguson - Le Jolifou  Mathieu Gallant - Crudessence  Alexandre Gosselin - Chez Victoire  Nick Hodge - Kitchenette  Marc-André Jetté - Les 400 Coups  Ségué Lepage - Le Comptoir Charcuteries et Vins  Mario Navarrete Jr. - Raza  Jean-Philippe St-Denis - Kitchen Galerie Poisson  Danny St Pierre - Auguste

2011 Judges  James Chatto  Robert Beauchemin  Gildas Meneu  Julian Armstrong

 Lesley Chesterman  Rollande DesBois  Chef Martin Juneau