{"id":5308,"date":"2015-06-16T11:23:57","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T15:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cheeseloverca.wordpress.com\/?p=5308"},"modified":"2015-06-16T11:23:57","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T15:23:57","slug":"chef-lili-sullivan-grilled-cheese-champion-at-tgccf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/2015\/06\/16\/chef-lili-sullivan-grilled-cheese-champion-at-tgccf\/","title":{"rendered":"Chef Lili Sullivan: Grilled-cheese champion at #TGCCF"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"All<\/a>
All hail Chef Lili Sullivan of Gazebo Restaurant at Waupoos Estate Winery!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chef Lili Sullivan showed three chefs of the male persuasion how it<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>s done in the County when she easily defeated them in a grilled-cheese showdown at The Great Canadian Cheese Festival<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chef Sullivan, who runs Gazebo Restaurant<\/a> at Waupoos Estates Winery in Prince Edward County, grilled 250 cheese sandwiches in 34 minutes flat<\/strong>\u2014<\/strong>while the men were barely halfway. Total focus and fast hands not afraid of heat were her secret weapons.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The competition\u2014to see which of the four chefs could grill 250 cheese sandwiches the quickest\u2014was the method Cheese Festival organizers concocted to feed the first 1,000 ticket holders admitted on Sunday, June 7, in a fifth-anniversary celebration called Grilled Cheese Chowdown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Total<\/a>
Total focus and fast hands not afraid of heat. Chef photos and graphic by Jane Churchill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chef Sullivan grilled her sammies with Black River Cheese<\/a> cheddar, Stonemill Bakehouse<\/a> Prince Edward County Rye and Stirling Creamery<\/a> unsalted butter.<\/p>\n

Her prize? A cheque for $1,000 paid on her behalf by the Cheese Festival to the charity of her choice, Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital<\/a> Auxiliary.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

Click here for a Grilled Cheese Chowdown photo album<\/a>.<\/u><\/p>\n

While grilled cheese does not make an appearance on the menu at Gazebo Restaurant in Waupoos, Chef Sullivan certainly brought her A-game to the competition.<\/p>\n

After studying culinary management at George Brown College, Sullivan went on to Toronto\u2019s Auberge du Pommier, later taking the lead as head chef at Chapeau Bistro and The Rebel House. As an advocate of the slow food movement in Ontario, she spent nine years on the board of directors of Organic Advocates\u2019 Feast of Fields<\/a>. The organization, which was co-founded by Chef Jamie Kennedy, brings chefs and farmers together to raise awareness of organic eating and its benefits to the environment and to humans. As the movement took hold in bucolic Prince Edward County, the wine region\u2019s magnetism was evident.<\/p>\n

A long-time supporter of Countylicious<\/a>, Sullivan\u2019s cooking draws crowds during the County\u2019s twice annual prix-fixe celebration of local food. Countylicious\u2019 goal is to introduce diners to the bounty of local food that\u2019s still available during the \u201cshoulder seasons\u201d of fall and spring, when most farmer\u2019s markets have wound down for the year or have yet to open up.<\/p>\n

\"Gazebo<\/a>
Gazebo Restaurant at Waupoos Estates Winery in Prince Edward County.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cLocally grown is not a trend, but a lifestyle,\u201d quips Sullivan. A truly seasonal eater, her family relocated from Europe in the 1960s, bringing their culinary sensibilities with them. \u201cWe only ate strawberries when they were in season. It\u2019s just the way I was raised,\u201d said Sullivan, in a Bay of Quinte Tourism Local Food<\/a> episode last year. The Grilled Cheese Chowdown was the perfect venue for Sullivan to showcase local tastes, with all cheese provided by the Cheddar & Ale Trail <\/a>producers of Hastings and Prince Edward counties.<\/p>\n

The next Great Canadian Cheese Festival\u2014the biggest artisan cheese show in Canada\u2014takes place Saturday and Sunday, June 4 and 5, 2016, in Picton, Ontario, at the Fairgrounds. For complete information, visit CheeseFestival.ca<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014Laura Voskamp<\/em><\/p>\n

By night, Laura Voskamp is a cheese lover and freelance writer. By day, she\u2019s Communications Coordinator for <\/em>Bay of Quinte Tourism<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Bay of Quinte Living.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chef Lili Sullivan showed three chefs of the male persuasion how it\u2019s done in the County when she easily defeated them in a grilled-cheese showdown at The Great Canadian Cheese Festival. Chef Sullivan, who runs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,199,203,378,379,404],"tags":[422,439,440],"brand":[],"class_list":["post-5308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-black-river-cheese","category-great-canadian-cheese-festival","category-grilled-cheese-chowdown","category-stirling-creamery","category-stonemill-bakehouse","category-waupoos-estates-winery","tag-canadian-artisan-cheese","tag-great-canadian-cheese-festival","tag-grilled-cheese"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5308"},{"taxonomy":"brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/brand?post=5308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}