Landlocked' chef to compete in national seafood competition

Pennsylvania School of Culinary Arts instructor Chef Timothy Harris will represent Pennsylvania at the 11th annual Great American Seafood Cook-Off, to be held Saturday, at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. Eighteen chefs from throughout the United States will compete.

Harris, one of the founding members and current chapter president of the American Culinary Federation, Harrisburg chapter, has developed a dish that represents Pennsylvania’s agricultural bounty — with sweet corn, local orchard peaches, cocoa nibs from Hershey and farm-raised rainbow trout from Limestone Springs Fishing Preserve in Lebanon County.

“In a landlocked state, it’s pretty hard to represent seafood,” Harris says. “So we’re taking pieces from our surrounding area, the best of what we offer, and tying them together (by) embracing the sustainable food movement.” During the timed competition, Harris will have one hour to put up several identical plates and a 10-minute window to present his plate to the judges.

Harris is the culinary and pastry career service specialist at The Pennsylvania School of Culinary Arts at YTI Career Institute Lancaster and was recognized as Faculty of the Year in 2011.