Asian chefs cook up a storm in French culinary competition
January 30 , 2005 - Agence France Presse
LYON, France, Jan 29 (AFP) - Asian chefs turned up the heat on their European counterparts this week at one of the world’s most prestigious culinary events, La Bocuse d’Or.
China, competing this year for the first time like Lebanon, joined Japan and Singapore among the 24 teams battling for the award named after celebrated French chef Paul Bocuse.
In the competition held in Lyon, each of the teams was given five hours to prepare a meat and fish dish accompanied by a series of elaborate garnishes.
This year, it was a saddle of Danish veal and Icelandic monkfish, accompanied by six elaborate garnishes with the aim of impressing the 24 judges, one from each of the competing countries.
The stakes are high, not only a golden statue of Bocuse himself and a check for 20,000 euros (26,000 dollars) but also a swift rise up the culinary ladder, with a reputation of joining some of the best chefs in the world.
“The Bocuse is a huge influence on young cooks that makes a big impression on them and motivates them,” said Japanese chef Noriyuki Hamada from the Urawa Royal Pines Hotel in Saitama City.
“Competing here has been in my head long before I ever even became a candidate.”
Indeed, trainees from around the world are selected and start preparing months and sometimes years before the competition begins. Canada’s 2007 candidate, for example, has already been selected and is here to get a feeling for what it will be like.
Japan’s Hamada ended up in a respectable 12th place, even beating the teams from Spain and Italy, while Singapore’s Benton-Toh Bengtong, now a culinary trainer at the Ritz Carleton Hotel in Dubai, came 18th.
“The Bocuse motivates all of our chefs at home,” said Japan’s judge, Hirochika Midorikawa, who is the executive chef at Tokyo’s Keio Plaza Hotel.
China, a candidate in the Bocuse d’Or competition for the first time in the bi-annual event’s 20-year history, seemed somehow optimistic, confident and just a little shell-shocked under the thundering noise coming down from the stands.
Their judge, Jiang Haiquiang, explained that for its first Bocuse foray, the team worked with a theme of health and nutrition.
Were they up to the task? He smiled, seemingly knowing that the team would place 22nd out of 24, but he wasn’t too upset.
“It was our first time here and we were happy with what we did,” he said. “It came out looking very nice.”
In the end it was French chef, Serge Vieira, from the Auberge des Cimes in southeastern Saint-Bonnet-Le-Froid, who narrowly scooped the top prize in the two-day cook-a-thon, just one point ahead of Norway’s Tom Victor Gausdal, with Denmark’s Rasmus Kofoed in third place.
But accepting his award, an emotional Vieira paid tribute to the Asian chefs after the tusnami disaster which hit the Indian Ocean in December.
“I want to thank everyone who helped me .. but I am also thinking of what is happening in Asia at this moment and to their hotel management schools. I would like to share my award with them.”
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Asian teams though, as at the World Pastry Cup which was also fought over during the two days competition, Japan suffered a catastrophe when their sugar sculpture fell over and shattered on the floor.
Yet the team persevered and still finished in fourth place, beating out 15 other teams.
The team came just ahead of South Korea’s Jong-Heung Hong, Soung Hoon Cho and In Ho Choy, who ended sixth in the pastry cup. They had had to lend equipment to the Russian team that had customs trouble, but took a special prize for their sugar sculpture that seemed to be inspired by H.R. Giger’s designs for the Alien movies.
According to Japanese judge, Midorikawa, the interest that the French competitions are generating back in Asia seems to grow every year.
“The preliminary competitions to select our candidate back at home are even now even bigger than the Bocuse itself,” he said.
