![\"Masa](\"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/files\/2010\/03\/yamashita.jpg\" "\\"Masa")
\nEver consider snacking on lentil ice cream?\u00a0 What about brittle made with bacon?\u00a0 They were the finishing touches of another gold medal meal created by UTC Chef Masa Yamashita provided for the fourth annual higher education ARAMARK Culinary Excellence Challenge 2010, Southern Region.<\/p>\n
In the four years the competition has been held, Yamashita has won gold each year.\u00a0 This year he bested Southern chefs from 18 schools, among them the University of Alabama and UT Knoxville.\u00a0 How does he do it?<\/p>\n
\u201cI am Japanese.\u00a0 I like to put an Asian flair on French and Italian dishes, an East meets West cuisine.\u00a0 I also like to cook healthy\u2014I don\u2019t use a pound of butter in the food I prepare,\u201d Yamashita said.<\/p>\n
From a \u201cMystery Bucket\u201d filled with a <\/strong>whole chicken, shrimp, lentils, dry cherry and rutabaga, Yamashita\u2019s entr\u00e9e menu included stuffed chicken and shrimp-rutabaga ravioli with spring vegetable and lemon grass-ginger sauce.<\/p>\n As result of his fourth gold medal win, Yamashita will compete in the national ARAMARK higher education chef competition in San Francisco, California, on July 25. <\/sup> He has earned two bronze medals at the national level in his four years of competition.\u00a0 \u201cWhen the national chefs hear \u201cthe South\u201d they always think biscuits and gravy.\u00a0 That\u2019s not what they get from me!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Yamashita\u2019s winning ways are infused into ARAMARK catered campus events and in the daily offerings students enjoy.<\/p>\n \u201cNowadays, students grow up with food like this\u2014they eat at restaurants with their parents and they know unusual flavors,\u201d Yamashita said.\u00a0 \u201cWe try to add a little tofu to an entr\u00e9e or add fresh Asian vegetables to dishes.\u00a0 Students appreciate the variety.\u201d<\/p>\n He never misses an opportunity to educate the taste buds at a catered event.\u00a0 \u201cChancellor Brown and his wife Dr. Carolyn Thompson are very supportive of trying different kinds of food for special events.\u00a0 That kind of menu makes them and me really happy,\u201d Yamashita said.<\/p>\n For a bit of background on his award-winning deserts, Yamashita says he cooked the lentils with sugar, let them cool, pureed half and left the other half of the cooked lentils chunky before he added the final ice cream ingredients.\u00a0 He served the ice cream with warm chocolate molten cake.<\/p>\n He got the idea of bacon in brittle from the US.\u00a0 \u201cI like pancakes served with maple syrup and bacon.\u00a0 The brittle with bacon has a smoky, salty and sweet taste,\u201d he said.\u00a0 With the smoked bacon brittle, he served balsamic cherry sauce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ever consider snacking on lentil ice cream?\u00a0 What about brittle made with bacon?\u00a0 They were the finishing touches of another gold medal meal created by UTC Chef Masa Yamashita provided for the fourth annual higher education ARAMARK Culinary Excellence Challenge 2010, Southern Region. In the four years the competition has been held, Yamashita has won… <\/p>\n