The recently concluded second edition of the ‘Young Chef Olympiad 2016’ provided a platform to hospitality students from across 51 countries to showcase their culinary talent through grueling cook-offs spanning six days and four cities in India By Joy Roy Choudhury & Rituparna Chatterjee
The second edition of the Young Chef Olympiad (YCO) 2016, organised by International Institute of Hotel Management (IIHM) and supported by the ‘Incredible India’ initiative of the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, held from January 27 to February 1, 2016, once again emerged as a successful platform to connect culinary talent from across borders. Held across multiple cities including New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru with the grand finale held in Kolkata, YCO 2016 witnessed participation from 51 culinary students representing 51 countries, including the US, UK, Canada, Philippines, Peru, Kenya, Mexico, Spain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, among others. At YCO 2016, the number of participants was up from 15 countries at the inaugural edition.
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YCO 2016, spread across six days and four cities, started with a grand opening ceremony on January 27, 2016 at Talkatora Indoor Stadium, New Delhi, followed by cook-offs in New Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai before culminating into the grand finale held in Kolkata on February 1, 2016. The competition was judged by an elite panel consisting some of the leading chefs from across the globe including Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, celebrity chef, principal judge and YCO mentor; Prof David Foskett, former dean and head of London School of Hospitality and Tourism at the University of West London, member of The Royal Academy of Culinary Arts, Craft Guild of Chefs and a fellow of the Institute of Hospitality, and author of Practical Cookery; Chef Kunal Kapur, celebrity chef; Chef Andreas Muller, act. programme director, Western Cuisine Operations and Training, International Culinary Institute (ICI) of the Vocational Training Council (VTC), Hong Kong; Chef Udo Leick, executive chef, Emirates Flight Catering; Chef Eric Neo, vice president, Singapore Chefs’ Association and executive chef, InterContinental Singapore; Chef Shaun Kenworthy, chef mentor and director, IIHM; Chef Manjit Singh Gill, corporate chef, ITC Hotels; Chef Andy Varma, celebrity chef; Karen Anand, celebrity food critic; Chef Abhijit Saha, founding director and chef of Avant Garde Hospitality; and Chef Sabyasachi Gorai, celebrity chef. For this competition, each country had sent in their best student chef along with their mentors to compete for the winning honour. At the end of several rounds of cooking, Chef Daniella Geramond of Canadian Food & Wine Institute (CFWI) at Niagara College was declared the winner by Chef Kapoor at the awards night held in Kolkata. Chef Fernando Andres Guajardo Moguel from Mexico and Chef Johan Kurkela from Finland took home the bronze, while Chef Gabriela Aleksandrova Hristova
from UAE became the first runner-up and won the silver.
Global platform
Chef Geramond received the winning honour among the 11 contestants who participated in the finals and walked away with the winner’s trophy, a gold medal and a prize money of US$ 10,000. At the finale, each contestant had to cook one chicken dish, one fish dish and a common dessert within three hours. Speaking on her victory, Chef Geramond stated, “I still can’t believe this. I don’t have words to express my feelings. It was a great experience to participate in this competition.”
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“This is a proud moment for us. I am really proud and obliged to see the whole world coming here in Kolkata for this event. Besides, being the world’s biggest culinary event for young chefs, the Olympiad has been successful in bonding the young chefs from different hospitality schools world over based on the philosophy of teach, learn, network and grow together,” expressed Dr Suborno Bose, president, executive committee member, YCO – International Council and chief mentor IndiSmart at the closing ceremony. Declaring the second session of the YCO closed, he promised to come back in 2017 with 100 participants from as many countries and taking up Indian culinary arts and the hospitality industry into the top position like the country’s info-tech and software industry.
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Sharing his experience of the Olympiad, Prof Foskett, stated, “YCO is an excellent initiative which will help in recognising the importance of culinary arts and hospitality, globally. We saw good culinary potential here at YCO and the future of culinary arts seem to be in good hands.” While Chef Kenworthy opined that a platform like YCO has inspired some of the participating countries to have similar competitions in their home turf.
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Complementing the efforts of IIHM for initiating this event, Chef Kapoor stated, “YCO is a good platform to discover new talent who will become future hospitality professionals. Wished we had the same kind of experience and exposure when we were in hospitality schools.” Chef Gill said that YCO is an excellent opportunity for young chefs to learn and interact with fellow chefs. “Beside skills, the culinary students should also have thorough knowledge about the science of gastronomy in order to excel in this age of cut-throat competition,” averred Chef Gill.
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Chef Varma opined, “It is a wonderful experience that I am flying from London to the city where I was born to judge an international event of this magnitude. YCO is an excellent platform for youngsters to learn, compete and excel. I congratulate IIHM and Dr Bose for this commendable effort. Lot of effort has gone behind organising this event and managing this kind of logistics. Today, Indian chefs are admired world over for their work ethics and I am sure that these bright young chefs would make the country proud in the years to come.” Echoing similar sentiments, Chef Gorai said, “I was amazed to see the high standards of the participants and their hunger to win.”
Chef Muller said that in order to succeed young chefs need to focus on skill, hygiene and ensure minimal wastage. Chef Neo applauded the efforts of IIHM for creating this platform and stated that a lot of basic techniques were seen during the cook-offs. While Chef Leick said, “YCO is a massive initiative by IIHM. First time ever such a good bench-marking platform has been created for so many of the world’s young chefs and colleges.”