Brandon Sun - PRINT EDITION
Brandon’s J.D. Braid stands in front of the food he made to win a gold medal at the 23rd World Culinary Olympics in Erfurt, Germany. Braid also captained Team Manitoba to a silver medal at the event. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)
One of the dishes — a goldeye salad — that helped propel Brandon’s J.D. Braid to a gold medal at the World Culinary Olympics in Germany. The goldeye can be fished locally and is the source of inspiration for the Winnipeg Goldeyes baseball team. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)
Brandon’s J.D. Braid is quickly becoming the Usain Bolt of the World Culinary Olympics.
On Thursday, Braid returned to Brandon from Erfurt, Germany, with some extra hardware after 10 days of competing at the 23rd culinary games.
"The two little guys from Brandon took gold," Braid said about scoring high enough marks in his category to earn a gold medal with the help of chef and friend Larry de Vries.
In 2008, Braid took home a gold medal for his eight-person seafood platter and six appetizer plates. This time around, competing against more than 100 chefs from around the world, Braid duplicated the feat.
"After I was done, I walked around the halls and got a chance to see what other people had done and it makes you nervous," Braid said.
"I was feeling relatively confident until they started calling people up on stage and then you start to get nervous and second-guessing yourself."
In total, about 1,900 chefs from 49 countries around the world participated in the Games and with such a wide variety of techniques and cuisines at the Olympics, Braid decided to focus on local food to reach the top of the podium.
"I like to work with food from the region that inspires me," Braid said.
"I tried to promote our regional cuisine in Manitoba so some of the stuff that I cooked was venison, pickerel and I work at Maple Leaf so I did a roast pork platter for two and a braised suckling pork leg."
The gold medal was almost not to be, however.
After helping guide Team Manitoba to a silver medal as team captain on Day 1 of the Games, Braid had to decide whether to enter the individual portion of the competition.
During the team portion, Braid worked 36 hours straight; the individual competition would mean the chef would be on his feet another 48 hours carefully crafting and checking his cuisine.
"I’m not the type of guy that can sit around while all these competitions are going on," Braid said, adding that he grabbed three hours of sleep at the hotel following the team competition before putting his chef’s jacket back on to compete again.
The gruelling competition was worth it, however, giving Braid his second gold medal as an individual in as many Olympics to go with his two silver medals.
So what will Braid do for an encore?
Well, he’s decided to retire from competitive cooking so that he can focus on grooming the next top chefs from Manitoba.
"I’m going out on a high and I’ll just be coaching and mentoring the younger chefs in the future," Braid said.
» ctweed@brandonsun.com
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition October 15, 2012
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Brandon’s J.D. Braid is quickly becoming the Usain Bolt of the World Culinary Olympics.
On Thursday, Braid returned to Brandon from Erfurt, Germany, with some extra hardware after 10 days of competing at the 23rd culinary games.
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Brandon’s J.D. Braid is quickly becoming the Usain Bolt of the World Culinary Olympics.
On Thursday, Braid returned to Brandon from Erfurt, Germany, with some extra hardware after 10 days of competing at the 23rd culinary games.
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