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8 Sports & Leisure, Thursday, February 18, 2010 Lori playing centre at the Olympics' Hockey House Lori Gysel is one of five head chefs selected to work in the Molson Canada Hockey House-- hockey headquarters at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. While in Vancouver, Lori will write about her experiences, and The Independent & Free Press will publish them along with Lori and Gerry's regular What's Cookin' feature (below). Here we are, four days into the Olympics! Life in the kitchen of the Molson Canadian Hockey House is in full swing. I think last week I wrote you about some of the prep work-- well, now we are fully into the service. At our site we have five different rooms to service with food. There is the "fan zone"-- this is the area where the tickets are $99, there is a gigantic screen for watching the games and a huge stage where Tom Cochrane, Barenaked Ladies, Bryan Adams and more are performing each night. This area holds Lori Gysel & Gerry Kentner around 1,500 people and is sold out for the entire games. Then there are four VIP areas as well. We are feeding several hundred people for lunch each day and about 2,500 people for dinner. The kitchen is divided into a hot kitchen and a cold kitchen. There is an executive chef who oversees the whole operation, two head chefs who expedite, plan and problem solve and five lead chefs (working on different shifts) who oversee the hot and cold kitchens. I am one of the chefs running the hot kitchen. The weird thing is that of all of those people, I am the only woman. Kind of weird. At first no one knew me, so I think they were all looking pretty closely to see what I could do, but I think after working together for more than a week, they are beginning to trust me. Then there are about 25 other cooks working at the Hockey House and more off site at our prep kitchen. Almost all the food we are serving has been prepared in the prep kitchen and delivered in a refrigerated truck-- we are just finishing it off and heating. There is a four-day rotating menu. For example tonight we prepared leg of lamb, smashed potatoes, braised short ribs, chicken parmesan, lasagna, fettucini primevera, peas with mushrooms, steamed green beans, tilapia with putenesca sauce, meatloaf with gravy, saffron rice and four different kinds of hot hors d'oeuvre. Then the cold kitchen is making canapes, many kinds of salads, cheese platters, fruit platters, desserts and desserts and desserts! It is something else cooking for this number of people-- especially when you are doing it day after day! Yesterday I managed to get out of work in time to meet up with friends in a downtown pub, have a pint and watch Alexandre Bilodeau do his historic mogul run-- it was fantastic; you should've heard the crowds in the pub and on the street! Anyhow, gotta go catch some sleep, as I'm up early to cook a VIP breakfast tomorrow morning. From the kitchen of the Molson Canadian Hockey House at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games-- have fun and keep cooking! Email your comments or questions to Lori and Gerry at whatscookin@independentfreepress.com What's Cookin': 3-Cheese Macaroni and Cheese Ingredients · 2 cups dry elbow macaroni · 1/3 cup butter · 1/3 cup flour · 3 cups milk · 1 tsp dry mustard · 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce · 1 tsp grated nutmeg-- freshly grated if possible · 1 cup grated old cheddar, coloured · 1 cup grated mozzarella · 1 cup grated fontina or Swiss cheese (save a half cup aside for later in recipe) · salt and pepper to taste · 2 cups coarse bread crumbs Method Boil macaroni until fork tender. Drain and set aside. Melt butter over medium heat in a medium-sized pot. Make a roux by adding the flour and whisking into the melted butter. Cook the flour and butter mixture over medium-low heat for two minutes, until the mixture turns beige in colour. Slowly add the cold milk to the flour and butter mixture, whisking constantly, until mixture has thickened. Add in the mustard, nutmeg, Worcestershire and cheese. Blend over low heat until cheese melts. Pour over the noodles and blend together. Place in individual serving dishes. Combine remaining cheese and breadcrumbs. Sprinkle over noodle mixture. Bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 25-35 minutes, depending on size of serving dish. Breadcrumbs should be golden brown and cheese mixture should be bubbly around the edges. Serves six.