Joe Ray

January 26, 2005 - The Houston Chronicle

LYON, FRANCE - It was a gastronomic madhouse.

In an event that seemed to combine the rowdiest elements of the Olympic Games, TV’s Iron Chef and a European soccer match, 24 teams of chefs from around the world came to duke it out for one of cuisine’s top prizes: La Bocuse d’Or.

Houston Country Club executive chef Fritz Gitschner, however, was as cool as a cucumber. Although he didn’t take home the gold — France won, followed closely by Norway and Denmark — team USA took ninth place.

Gitschner’s proud of the way he and his apprentice, Adam Heath, performed amid the chaos.

“I block it out,” said the Austrian-born chef on Tuesday, the first day of the two-day competition. “You could stand in front of me, and I won’t see you.”

The crowds went bonkers. Each team’s legion of fans came decked out in their country’s colors, bearing air horns and trumpets and stomping on the stands. A huge media contingent poked cameras under the chefs’ noses as they prepared their food.

“I’m surprised at how big this is,” said American celebrity chef and La Bocuse d’Or judge Wolfgang Puck. Of the 1,000 screaming fans, he noted, “I’ve never seen a cooking competition with so many people.”

The competition, named for its founder, celebrated French chef Paul Bocuse, gives each team five hours to prepare a meat dish and a fish dish. This year the ingredients were saddle of Danish veal and Icelandic monkfish, to be accompanied by six elaborate garnishes.

Twenty-four judges, one from each country in the competition, scored each presentation out of a total of 60 points, with taste accounting for 40 points and presentation for 20. Those who win the top prizes immediately become known as some of the best chefs in the world.

The first dish Gitschner presented to the judges was roasted monkfish tail with three garnishes — cauliflower flan, lobster timbale and choucroute of savoy cabbage. Then came the Danish veal cooked three ways — brined, braised and roasted — and another trio of garnishes.

Gitschner and Heath prepared for months.

“You know almost exactly where you should be every minute,” Gitschner said, “and my assistant has been working on nothing but this for the last seven months.”

What was his strategy? “Hot food and tasty food, that’s our motto.”

Huh? Isn’t that a bit naive here in the gastronomic capital of the world?

Gitschner demurred. “Unless you have the technology to make sure the food is hot, you’re not serving a perfect product.”

Good point. Once the platters leave the kitchens, they are paraded in front of a long line of judges and cameras before being individually plated and served, a process that can leave food cold.

“If you make something in a butter sauce, it will be greasy by the time it reaches the judges’ plates,” Gitschner said.

To combat this, team USA devised one of the biggest innovations of the contest — a giant custom food cart with eight heat lamps.

Was it worth all the effort?

“American chefs deserve recognition but have never been able to get the attention that the European chefs have,” Gitschner said. “Over here, they think of the U.S. as hot dogs, hamburgers and apple pie.”

Competition was tough. Spain’s presentation looked like an animated spaceship encased in a great glass egg. France, using a manicured garden theme for its garnishes, placed its monkfish on a decorative grille of vines.

Gitschner hopes to inspire young American chefs.

“It’s giving back to the profession,” he said. “(They’re) back in the U.S. saying, ‘Look, he could be my father and he’s doing it.’ ” (Gitschner is 49.)

Medal or no, he has already inspired those around him. Up in the stands, Houston Country Club general manager William Schultz cheered him on.

“This is great for our kitchen staff,” he said. “They all aspire to this.”

Writer-photographer Joe Ray lives in Paris.