Day 1 Arabian Feast Clod Display
28 February 2011
Emirates Salon 2011 Day 1 Five Course Set Menu
Day 1
Cold Display Five Course Set at the Emirates Gulinary Guild's Salon 2011
Cold Display Five Course Set at the Emirates Gulinary Guild's Salon 2011
Emirates Culinary Guild's Salon 2011-Ice Carving Day I
Day 1 and the Ice is flying, 16 hopeful Ice Carvers took to the main stage showing a large crowd their skills and that they did.
25 February 2011
Warmest greetings from All Japan Chefs Association
The 15th WACS Asian Presidents Forum will be held from 23rd to 25th of April in Tokyo, Japan.
As a proud WACS member, AJCA is privileged to host the 15th APF and we look forward to participation from all member countries; renewing the bonds of friendship; strengthening our communication with one another at our annual APF.
This year, we will introduce Japanese culinary history and culture at a One-Day Food Tour. The day will culminate with our 15th Ceremony Dinner with special guests in attendance. Also, we will visit Tokyo’s most famous Tsukiji Market in the early morning, and much more.
Had AJCA not joined WACS in 1960, Western gourmet culinary food culture would not be what it is today. This, in turn, has helped Japanese cuisine, food culture and history to be elevated and recognised as a global cuisine.
We are very excited to be hosting the 15th APF in this new format, and we hope that you will all find it culturally enriching as Japan ink this chapter in the APF’s history.
It will be an honour if you do share this opportunity with us, and we look forward to having a wonderful blooming season with you here in Tokyo!
With culinary regards,
Toshi Utsunomiya
President of All Japan Chefs Association
The Emirates Salon Culinaire 2011 Feb 27th -March 2nd
The Emirates Salon CulinaireOrganised by the Emirates Culinary Guild Endorsed by the World Association of Chefs’ Societies
An Overview of the Emirates Salon Culinaire
The Emirates Salon Culinaire (ESC) is a series of practical and display-based culinary competitions; entry to which is open to professional chefs, pastry chefs, cooks and bakers. Some of the competitions are designed for entry by a single competitor; others are designed as team events. Each competition is called a ‘class’.Each class of the various competitions is intended to test the differing skills of entrants whilst also celebrating the preparation and presentation of food and its accoutrements in attractive and pleasing forms.The team events are designed to test cooperative, gastronomic and artistic skills. The practical cookery events test gastronomic and timing skills. Artistic and timing skills are required for the practical artistic events.The salon takes place over four days at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre. It is run in conjunction with the annual Gulf Food Hotel and Equipment Exhibition.The Emirates Culinary Guild (ESC) in its organisation of the salon is strongly supported by Dubai World Trade Centre Management Company (DWTC) in the provision of space, stand construction and logistics. The exhibits at the salon act as a display for the UAE hospitality and food industry. They bring to the attention of the general public the service and food concepts and fashions currently prevalent within the region’s hotels and restaurants. To the professional chefs competing, the salon presents an opportunity for them to test themselves against the bounds of their perceived abilities, and to demonstrate to the public, their colleagues and their seniors the scope of their artistic acumen and practical dexterity. Through the media of competition and exposition, the salon serves to inspire and encourage young chefs to continue striving for ever upward improvement in their daily work practice. There are few things more stimulating or heartening than to receive tribute from one’s respected peers and seniors. Accordingly the competitors at the salon are judged by a panel of 20 international adjudicators, each one of whom is an approved international judge of the World Association of Chefs’ Societies (www.wacs2000.org). Entrants to the various competitions do not compete directly against each other; rather, they strive to reach perfection in their art. Each of their creations is then judged by the panel according to its international merit. Gold, Silver and Bronze medals and certificates are awarded to those competitors whose exhibits, in the opinion of the judges, have reached the commensurate international standard. In addition to the medal awards, there are special trophies awarded to individuals who have attained excellence at the competition in their particular field: gastronomy; bakery/pastry; artistic - and a new award designed to encourage the development of Arabic cuisine. To any member of the general public fortunate enough to observe it , the Emirates Salon Culinaire is a visual extravaganza of culinary showpieces and practical cookery demonstrations: exciting ice carvings; intricately decorated buffet platters; spectacular pastry and chocolate creations; picture-perfect, aspic-preserved, platters of all manner of edible delights: Wedding cakes; celebration cakes; works of genius in spun and blown sugar: in fact, a seemingly endless presentation of gastronomic masterpieces. All this - coupled with four days of real-time, hectic, and thrilling cookery competitions - fought against the constraints of time, makes the salon a stimulating event that has become a major attraction at the Gulf Food, Hotel & Equipment Exhibition &Salon Culinaire.http://www.emirates-culinaryguild.com/html/emiratessalon.php
21 February 2011
Online Video Cookbook of Recipes from IdealChef.com
An Online Video Cookbook of recipes submitted by professional chefs!
Idealchef.com differentiates itself by providing our viewers with video recipes by Professional Chefs. Our Chefs take the fear out of cooking by showing you each step.
Click here to start searching for your favorite video recipes or click on the pictures below to see some of our favorite video recipes!.
2nd Junior Asian Chef Challenge
The 2nd Junior Asian Chef Challenge will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Date: 6 - 9 April, 2011
Up for the challenge? :)
Click on this link to download the information pack!
http://acp-indonesia.net/index.php/download/category/1-registration-form?download=9%3A2nd-junior-asian-chef-challenge
GROUP 4 - Class 17: JUNIOR ASIAN CHEF CHALLENGE LIVE
Open to teams from culinary schools or institution in Asia, member of World Association of Cooks Societies (WACS). Each team must comprise of 1 Team leader (no age limit) and 3 Junior Chefs (aged between 19-27 years).
Team to prepare and present within 120 minutes, 3 course menu consist of Appetizer, Main course and dessert for 6 people. Appropriate show plate must be brought in by the teams (Pre cut vegetables and basic sauce/stock are allowed)
Each kitchen station will be properly equipped; competitors will be advice at the later date of equipment
provided. Please bring along your own kitchen utensil and small equipment.
Recipes and menu required for display
Mise-en-place and Cleanliness 0 – 10 points
Correct Professional Preparation 0 – 30 points
Arrangement and Presentation/Innovation 0 – 20 points
Taste & Texture 0 – 40 points
Maximum 100 points
20 February 2011
From hawker to haute
Stellar kitchens ... Tetsuya Wakuda's Waku Ghin. Photo: Leisa Tyler
A constellation of celebrity chefs is transforming fine dining in Singapore, writes Leisa Tyler.
Some say Singapore is one of the best eating cities in the world. It is certainly one of the most diverse. Founded by Sir Stamford Raffles as a trading post of the British East India Company in 1819, the tiny island settlement attracted labourers, merchants and mercenaries from Kerala to Canton. Continuing their culinary traditions, and sometimes blending with the styles and spices of their neighbours, these new arrivals helped Singapore become a smorgasbord of Asian cuisines.
From rich buffalo rendang, originating on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, to Chinese-style pork-rib soup and creamy Nonya-style laksa fusing Chinese ingredients with south-east Asian spices, these dishes can be had cheaply and cheerfully at hawker stalls and laneway restaurants across the city for just a few dollars a plate.
Advertisement: Story continues below
But now Singapore is shifting its culinary attention. Spurred by the arrival of satellite kitchens run by celebrity chefs in the flashy Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa - Singapore's new casino-hotel complexes known together as the ''integrated resorts'' or IRs - the city is embarking on a campaign to reinvent itself as Asia's premium destination for haute cuisine.
''In the past, we heavily promoted street food but with the two IRs, it's time to start changing our focus,'' says Ranita Sundramoorthy, who oversees dining at the Singapore Tourism Board.
The kitchen line-up is extraordinary. French chef Joel Robuchon, who has 20 restaurants around the world with 26 Michelin stars between them, plans to open three diners in Singapore by April. Austrian-American culinary entrepreneur Wolfgang Puck and Daniel Boulud, of New York's Daniel, both opened venues early this year. French chef Guy Savoy and Spain's Santi Santamaria opened eponymous restaurants in May last year (Santamaria died earlier this week while giving tours of his new restaurant). Tetsuya Wakuda, of legendary Sydney restaurant Tetsuya's, opened Waku Ghin two months later. Australian Scott Webster has opened Osia, offering ''authentic Australian cuisine'' using not-so-authentic Chilean sea bass and bluefin tuna.
Fine dining in Singapore doesn't come cheaply, however. Kyoto-born Kunio Tokuoka's restaurant of the same name has tasting menus for $S750 ($580) plus 17 per cent tax a head. Only steps away from Resorts World Sentosa's casino, it's not hard to see who the restaurant is targeting.
To get to Waku Ghin, Santi and Guy Savoy, you must traverse a shopping mall, then make your way through gaming halls heaving with adrenalin-charged punters.
Inside Waku Ghin, the incongruities continue. Most of the 11-course degustation menu is served in one of four teppanyaki booths - bare wood-panelled rooms where guests sit side by side facing a teppan hotplate; dessert is served in a different room. You might score a booth to yourself, as I did, or you might have to share, in which case you'll be seated beside a stranger. The first five courses are prepared in the kitchen. So with no art to gaze at, no music, no chef at the hotplate and conversation with your dining partners only possible by turning your body to see them, the ambience is strangely austere, almost frigid.
Wakuda's food, however, is extraordinary, with dishes such as plump Pacific oysters with ginger and rice wine, an astoundingly sweet and creamy sea urchin served with raw shrimp and caviar, fresh Tasmanian abalone (which is, disturbingly, fried alive in front of you) and thin slices of seared wagyu beef with fresh dragon-fire wasabi.
Next door, Santi's atmosphere is more engaging and he scores top marks for food, too. The country-style Catalan dishes include a gobsmacking tuna belly with eggplant and truffle, melt-in-the-mouth roast pig and a wooden trolley of more than 26 artisanal cheeses to choose from. There is an excellent Spanish and French wine list and an affordable tapas bar.
Although these star chefs add a new dimension to the city, Singapore's gastro scene has been maturing for some time. Last year, two Singapore restaurants - Iggy's and Jaan par Andre - scored places in the San Pellegrino world's 50 best restaurants list; another two - Les Amis and Gunther's - were listed in the top 100.
First appearing in the list in 2009, Iggy's, which is owned and run by sommelier Ignatius Chan, is known as much for its shoebox size, absence of windows and homely bookshelves full of cookbooks as it is for its cuisine: oysters with mascarpone and Japanese mint; slow-cooked egg with black truffles. (The restaurant recently moved to a slick new space at the Hilton Hotel.)
''We hope one day Singapore will be another San Sebastian,'' Chan tells me, referring to the Basque city famed for its cuisine.
When Jaan par Andre at the Swissotel made the best-restaurant list, dashing young Taiwanese chef Andre Chiang was running the kitchen. Chiang has since left Swissotel to start a restaurant of his own, a 30-seater named Andre. Set inside an early 20th-century two-storey house at the New Majestic Hotel in Chinatown, Andre is hushed and refined, with white linen, Christofle hand-moulded crockery and a whimsical herd of shaggy sheep stools standing by.
Before dinner, each person is given a booklet with stories and drawings outlining Chiang's philosophy and relationship to food. Only artisan-grown produce is used, with five or fewer ingredients a dish. The raw-scallop ravioli in a purple cauliflower consomme is so beautiful, it could be a watercolour; oysters served with sea grapes and a foam of Granny Smith apples is a perfect combination. With relaxed but attentive service and wines from little-known family producers in France, Andre is, for me, Singapore's most exceptional dining experience.
Swedish chef Ebbe Vollmer has now taken the helm at Jaan Restaurant. This long-standing restaurant on the 70th floor of Swissotel The Stamford, with its dazzling Murano chandeliers and views across the city, is elegant and classy. Vollmer's food isn't as theatrical as Chiang's was in this restaurant but it remains a fine choice, with dishes such as butter-soft pheasant with Madeira sauce and boudin blanc with mustard, teamed with a superb wine list and outstanding service.
Rustic meets industrial chic at Cocotte at the recently opened Wanderlust hotel. The bustling ground-floor diner swarms with patrons in jeans and T-shirts and wooden trolleys stacked with cheese. The hearty French farm food is simple and casual: think fatty pig's trotters, tongue-tingling onion and anchovy tarts and a succulent organic roast chicken served with the carcass and a pot of roast vegies on a wooden platter.
If that doesn't wow you, there's always hawker centre next door.
Leisa Tyler stayed courtesy of the Swissotel and Wanderlust hotels.
14 February 2011
Latest from Singapore SJCC
New Blood; Old Recipe
Year 2011; a new beginning, a continuation, a journey we started barely a year ago. The Singapore Junior Chefs Club Culinary Team started off strong with an encouraging accolade of 1st Runner up at the 2010 Penang Chefs Challenge. The team was led by me, Sean Lim. Together with Benedict Yong, Corinne Ruth and Tiffany Wee. Not forgetting the ever supportive Team Assistants, Eunice Koh, Lays Poh and Ammierul. Since then, the team has grown to eleven members strong. The latest addition to the team will allow talents to be groomed and wider horizons to be exposed to discerning young culinarians- the aim and grounding principle(s) the Singapore Junior Chefs Club was set up for.
Two thousand eleven will be an exhilarating year for the SJCC Culinary Team with a line up of regional competitions like Food Hotel Indonesia and Battle of the Chefs, Penang 2011. Not forgetting the highly anticipated Hofex- WACs Hansbusken Junior Chef Competition Asia Selection 2011. This is a competition whereby young culinarians 25 and below battle it out to earn a spot in the Hansbusken Junior Chef Competition Korea 2012. A prestigious and adrenaline driving competition awaits the team.
The team’s intensive training sessions will be scrutinized under the watchful eyes of Chef Elvin Chew and Chef Tian Mu. Advice from our Nation’s culinary powerhouses, Chef Otto Weibel, Chef Eric Teo and Chef Tony Khoo will ensure a stronghold of defence against our regional and world competitors. With a wealth of experience and knowledge supporting us, the youth team hopes to fly the Nation’s flag high and mighty like our mentors have.
Together as a team we believe only hard work pays off. Talent is a gift and for those who lack, diligence ultimately compensates. Humility keeps us grounded and results are secondary compared to lessons and experiences gained in ethical competition.
Best Culinary Spirits,
Sean Lim
World Chefs Tour Against Hunger 2011
| ||
Convenor of the 2011 tour is Chef Martin Kobald (South African Chefs Association's honuary president). Hope's to welcome over 200 chefs from across the globe in the effort to feed the nation.
The organisers plan to hold gala dinners around the world to raise awareness of the scourge of hunger while raising money.
Bidvest, operational in 20 countries and across four continents, provides substantial international reach of its own.
Says Kobald: “We anticipate that the Bidvest World Chefs’ Tour Against Hunger will prove to be the biggest fundraising event ever undertaken within the global chefs’ fraternity.
“We feel hugely privileged to be supported by Bidvest and afforded the opportunity to invite chefs from around the world to share their knowledge and compassion in the fight against hunger.”
R4 million poured into the ‘pot’ would easily create a new record.
In 1993, when international chefs first came to South Africa to raise money to fight hunger, R500 000 was raised. The follow-up 10th anniversary tour in 2003 raised R1,5 million.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)