RUN, RABBIT, RUN STUDENT COOKS IN RACE FOR WORLD CULINARY PRIZE.

Byline: Lisa M. Sodders Staff Writer

SYLMAR - Swiftly, but with the precision of a surgeon, Stephen Gillanders deboned the rabbit carcass in 5 1/2 minutes and handed it off to the captain of Los Angeles Mission College's culinary team.

For the past five months, the Culinary Youth Team has been learning to prepare an elaborate four-course meal fit for a four-star restaurant - in just under 90 minutes.

At stake: the chance to represent the United States in the International Culinary Olympiad in Germany in 2004.

On July 21, the students will travel to Las Vegas to compete against seven other teams for the chance to go to the international competition.

Gillanders, 19, of Granada Hills, one of five members of the team practicing Thursday, was working with the meat required as part of the menu.

``It's kind of built like a cat, so some parts are thin on the bone and you can't tear any holes in it,'' he said.

The food not only must look and taste good, but be prepared on time, said their coach, Chef Rudy Garcia, a certified executive chef.

Also, the students throw nothing away - the certified master chefs judging the competition will scrutinize the scraps and peels to make sure the budding chefs aren't wasting food.

``They have to be flawless,'' he said.

The students are required to use rabbit in both the appetizer and entree courses, so Garcia designed what he calls a ``California Gold Rush'' menu that not only uses food that pairs well with the sweet game meat, but also reflects the foods native to the animal's habitat.

The students will prepare an appetizer of a miniature four-cheese spinach-and-rabbit souffle, served in an oat cracker cup, with a smoked Gouda turnover, drizzled with prickly-pear au jus. For the second course, a wild mushroom consomme with flakes of edible gold leaf, followed by the entree - rabbit stuffed with ground rabbit and cranberries encased in a cinnamon-apple wrap.

And to top it all off, a dessert collage featuring a caramel crunch cookie, a petit pecan pie served in a miniature skillet, a peach mousse topped with peach relish and lemon verbena granita, and an old-fashioned chocolate cake with chocolate ganache, served with fresh raspberry ice cream and blackberry sauce on the side.

The Mission Culinary Arts students have proved their skills before. The school's pastry team and advanced cooking class recently returned from another competition in Las Vegas, where members won three silver and 12 bronze medals.

The team members are Gillanders; Matthew Anderson, 20, of Granada Hills; Theresa Moses, 19, of Newhall; Adria Macias, 19, of Agua Dulce; and Mary Ann Shenouda, 20, of Northridge.

Anderson, the team captain, likes the team's chances. He said Garcia has trained them well: ``He can get people to do really well, win (American Culinary Federation) medals, with a week's training, but we've been training for five months.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) Mission College student Stephen Gillanders, left, debones a rabbit as team captain Matthew Anderson observes.

(2) Chef Rudy Garcia, center, helps his students get ready for the competition.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer