his silver medal dish
NC State Executive Chef Brian Corcoran represented the university at the 2023 Culinary Challenge held at the National Association of College and University Food Services’ (NACUFS) Southern region conference on March 29, 2023, taking home a silver medal. Brian won the opportunity to compete during a preliminary round among chefs at NC State.
The annual NACUFS Culinary Challenge, created in 2001 and sanctioned by the American Culinary Federation (ACF), recognizes the vast collection of culinary expertise in collegiate foodservice. Each year, a protein is selected that competitors must use to create an original recipe to form a nutritionally balanced plate. Individual competitors’ creations are judged based on a 100-point scale to rate organization, cooking skills, culinary technique and taste.
This year’s protein featured pork tenderloin, ground pork, and pork belly in the dish. Although he was not selected to move on to the national competition, Corcoran was very happy with his Moroccan Pork Trio dish and the opportunity to compete. He shared that the “competition has reignited my passion for my craft and was a great learning experience across the board.”
Corcoran’s success was also met with enthusiastic support from his Wolfpack community with Chad Cliffe, campus executive chef with NC State Dining, emphasizing how “tremendously proud of Chef Brian we all are! He was laser focused. NC State Dining is going for gold next year.”