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03/02/2008

There must be some benefit to being a single guy and having to fend for yourself in the kitchen.

In late February, Matt Borman of Oakland, a professed bachelor who likes to cook, won a $500 cash prize for his home-style Cilantro Crab Cakes.

Borman, 30, won the prize in the Portland Shellfish Co. Crab Cake Recipe Contest. He was one of seven Culinary Arts students at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland who participated in the cook-off.

The shellfish company supplied the fresh Atlantic crab meat used in the contest and culinary arts department chairman, chef Wilfred D. Beriau, helped organize the competition. Judges from Portland Shellfish chose the winner.

Borman's crab cakes were his practiced version of a home recipe.

"I got my recipe from my mom," he said, of Terry Borman of Oakland, a nurse/case manager. His dad, Don Borman, is retired assistant superintendent of schools at Lawrence.

The cook-off was not a high-stress competition, he said.

"I didn't have to cook in front of anybody. We could practice the week before. The day before the cook-off, I took the crab meat home, mixed it into cakes and just had to cook them at the school. Chef Beriau took my cakes in to the next dining room to the judges. There was no stress involved."

What made Borman's crab cakes winners?

"Well, these guys (judges) thought . . . wow, these crab cakes taste really good!" Beriau said.

Borman thinks his crab cakes prevailed over the other contestants', because they were light on fat.

"Most of them (other cakes) were deep-fried. I sautéed them in a nonstick pan."

Borman graduated in 2003 with a degree in physical education from the University of Maine at Orono. He spent time traveling after college. Currently, he is a substitute teacher at Lawrence high and junior high schools in Fairfield. While looking for a teaching job, he decided to pursue his love of cooking by signing up for Basic Food Preparation I, at Culinary Arts.

"I'm doing it as a fallback thing, if teaching doesn't work out," he said.

He does a lot of grilling at home, even in the winter, he said, and once dished out chicken wings and grilled pizza at his roadside stand on Kennedy Memorial Drive in Oakland.

"I'd take a fresh dough ball, stretch it out and grill it on both sides, then put toppings on it."

The Culinary Arts program prepares students "to learn how to cook, learn how to become chefs and how to be a part of one of Maine's largest employers -- the hospitality industry," Beriau said.

Jeff Holden, president of Portland Shellfish, said the crab cake contest was a great opportunity to recognize local culinary talents and to support the efforts of Southern Maine Community College.

The cooperation worked both ways, said Beriau. The culinary program aims to get students involved with all kinds of community activities, including fundraisers for the Susan B. Curtis Foundation and the Kidney Foundation of Maine.

"We worked with a fundraiser, the Chocolate Lover's Fling, to help battered women in Maine. Our students won best of show, people's choice and the judge's award," he said.

Lynn Ascrizzi -- 621-5731

lascrizzi@centralmaine.com

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