Judging a Potato Competition

An international year of the potato competition wraps up last Friday in Toronto and I was one of the esteemed judges.

It's not everyday a girl gets asked to virtually judge a potato competition that's also being held in Peru and other points in between. Here in Canada, home cooks and amateur gourmets submitted either a Peruvian recipe or an International recipe (ie. from anywhere else in the world) for this potato recipe competition with the focus being on potatoes of course.

For those of you who didn't know that the humble yet nutritious tuber hails from Peru- consider youselves informed (no, they're not originally from Ireland!). Potatoes, along with corn, tomatoes, chilies and cocoa were brought to Europe and later North America by early explorers. There are some 5,000 varieties of potatoes in the world today.

So it was with great interest that myself and Carlos Fuenmayor, Ana de Siles, Angie McRae and my pal Vanessa Yeung were on hand to meet and taste the winning entrant's recipes (we judged them on paper alone which I'll admit was tougher than it sounds!). Causas, or potato layered savoury dishes may sound unusual to the uninitiated, but they are wonderful, crowd-pleasing dishes that had all of the non-Latin judges smacking their lips.

Congratulations again to Lucía Cristina Corbacho for her wonderful Causa de cangrejo (Crab Causa), and to Cecilia Freundt for her Picante de papas winning entries in the Peruvian Category. In the international category, María de Herrera won for her unique Pancitos de Papa (little potato breads), and Siria Effio won for her Pastel de papas con mariscos. A hearty thank you to Toronto's own La Cocina de Doña Luz for providing such a marvellous feast for everyone to sample the winning entries.

Stay tuned because I'll soon post a recipe or two so that you can replicate some Peruvian flavours in your home.