An Amazing 2013 for Young Chefs

An amazing 2013 for Young Chefs

Jasper Jek |Singapore |22 December 2013

Dear Young Chefs,

As the year comes to a close let us reflect on highlights of 2013. It has been an amazing year for the Young Chefs and the Young Chefs Development Team. We have seen the Young Chefs movement gaining momentum throughout the year with new Young Chefs Clubs (YCC) being formed and many activities being organized.

There was the birth of five YCCs in the Nordic region: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and  Finland, formed during the Nordic Congress held earlier this year. Rasmus Munk, Young Chef Ambassador for Northern Europe helps to liaise between them and with WorldChefs. Jan Horak, takes charge of the YCCs in Central Europe, and is the vice-president of his YCC in Prague. Down south, Mojmir Siftar, my fellow ambassador, communicates what is going on in the South Europe. The newly formed Cyprus YCC made an addition to the list of YCCs in South Europe with the existing Slovenia YCC. Over in Asia, we had South Korea, Myanmar and the Philippines establishing their YCCs. In total, there are currently more than 20 YCCs around the world in our big family and a membership of thousands of young chefs.

 The Presidents of the YCCs in Asia met up in Kular Lumpar in September during the WACS Asia Presidents Forum. It was an exciting opportunity for the young chefs from different nationalities to get to know one another and what each was doing for their clubs. It was evident that they were very much on the same page, hoping to give the bests to their members. The YCCs of Philippines and South Korea were also formally introduced at the meeting.

In November was the International Young Chefs Challenge (IYCC) held in Seoul. 19 teams of Young Chefs from around the world converged in South Korea to compete in this inaugural Young Chefs competition. It was really international as all continents were represented. Costa Rica, Sweden, Cyprus, Dubai, Hongkong, Australia, USA to name a few. The competition was instrumentally organized by Korea Cook Associations, and it sponsored the airfares, accommodation, transport, and excess luggage of the competing teams. I found the competition really benefited the young chefs who participated and I do hope that the competition will return again in 2017.

The World Association of Chefs Societies office has recently announced that it will be changing its branding of “WACS” to “Worldchefs”. Therefore we in the young chefs development team will also follow suit in the all our logos and communications. We have also created a feed for the Young Chefs Clubs facebook pages at https://www.facebook.com/lists/720956647931779. Click “Follow” on the top right of the page (or ‘Subscribe” if you are viewing it on your mobile phone) to get updates of the exciting news from the various YCCs all in a single page!

The Young Chefs of China, Taiwan, Thailand and Korea did a charity dinner at the Food and Hotel China to raise funds for the relief efforts in the Philippines disaster and for an orphanage in China. In Malaysia, the Young Chefs of Penang, together with their seniors, did a fund raising for Philippines by cooking a dinner with their menu for the IYCC. The Singapore Junior Chefs Club also did a fund raising through baking and selling chocolate cookies. The funds were channeled through World Chefs Without Borders to the Philippines chefs association: LTB Philippines, which is working with a local welfare organization, Gawad Kalinga Cebu to deliver the necessary aid and reconstruction for the victims of the Haiyan typhoon disaster.

As we say goodbye to 2013, let us welcome 2014. 2014 will be an even challenging year as we strive to form more YCCs in the world in hope that someday we will achieve all Chefs associations having a YCC each. We will also be welcoming and meeting of you at the WorldChefs Congress in Stavanger, Norway, in July. We would like to encourage all young chefs who are interested to come for this event and to approach your chefs association president to find out how you are able to join it. There will be a whole range of activities, such as educational site visits such as the fjords, masterclass, seminars, nightly dinners and parties at various locations with breath-taking scenery. Therefore, do not get left behind and miss out the action.

In closing, I would like to wish all YCCs a job well done and a fruitful year ahead. For the Young Chefs, my message to you is that your Young Chef Club is only as active, fun and inspiring as how much you want to be involved and contribute to it.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Yours in Culinary Friendship,

Jasper Jek

Worldchefs Young Chef Ambassador (Asia)