Culinary students from Runaway Bay HEART Academy in St Ann faced off Sunday during the second annual Saltfish Culinary Challenge 2010 at the institution.

Billed as the ‘Me & My Family Saltfish Challenge’, the contest saw 10 students studying Food Preparation using ‘saltfish from Norway’ as their main ingredient.

The students, assisted by a family member, were challenged to develop and submit an original recipe for the preparation of a dish using Norwegian saltfish in an imaginative and non-traditional way.

The contestants’ level of creativity, originality as well as taste, flavour and presentation were brought to the fore and the three judges, all chefs, had a difficult time selecting the top three.

Judges Anthony Miller, executive chef-Couples Swept Away, and Colin Hylton of the Guilt Trip both champion chefs – Saltfish Culinary Challenge 2009- along with runner-up Debe Chen in their deliberation said they were impressed with the dishes presented by the students.

At the end of the challenge, Ryan Peterkin who was assisted by his father Lincoln, an instructor at the Academy and pastry chef at Runaway Bay HEART Hotel, was declared the winner.

The Peterkins prepared Jerk Saltfish and Cream Cheese served with mashed yam and sweet potato in a swan, garnished with pimento garden vegetable.

Young Peterkin won an all-expense-paid trip to the annual Dominican Republic Saltfish Festival in November. He was also presented with a medal and the championship trophy.

“We know saltfish is a little difficult to work with, but we sat and thought out of the box, how we can do saltfish different from how it is done now and we found that it would work very well with the cream cheese,” the elder Peterkin explained.

Second place went to Adonis Campbell and his sister Novia for their Saltfish Fillet Poached in Coconut Rum. The brother-sister pair won kitchen utensils and appliances valued at $150,000 as well as a medal.

Volae Williams and his mother Autherine took the third place with their Saltfish Herb Cake and took home kitchen utensils and appliances valued at $100,000 as well as a medal.

All the contestants and their partners were presented with certificates of participation as well as gift packages.

Espen Hanson, director at the Norwegian Seafood Export Council, said he was excited about the challenge and pleased with the quality of dishes prepared by the students.

He said the competition will allow students, when they become employed in the food industry, to better incorporate saltfish in their different dishes.

“Through initiatives such as these we will continue to encourage the use of saltfish in creative ways and build awareness of the product’s value, nutrition and versatility,” Hanson said.