MLA Team Mandarin Oriental - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

MANDARIN ORIENTAL, KUALA LUMPUR EMERGES OVERALL CHAMPION AT THE MLA BLACK BOX CULINARY CHALLENGE 2011

Kuala Lumpur, May 2011 – Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur is proud to announce that our culinary team has emerged overall champions at the recent Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) Black Box Culinary Challenge 2011. With 16 teams participating in the bi-annual event, the culinary team at Mandarin Oriental won “Best Overall” as well as “Best Soup Course”. Supplied with only a box of mystery ingredients, the culinary team had only 24 hours to prepare, cook and present a full 4-course menu to be served to 20 guests. 

The MLA Black Box Culinary Challenge is a team-based chef competition showcasing high quality Australian meat products to current and future chefs around the world. For 14 years, the challenge has influenced more than 3,500 young chefs, lifting their awareness and appreciation of Australian beef, sheep meat and goat meat. The competition attracts teams from hotels, restaurants, culinary schools and catering companies. 

The winning team, led by See Lay Na and Zaid Aqeel, comprised of members from both kitchen and service, were required to work with ingredients that were given to them in a black box, comprising of lamb flap, beef brisket, carrots, mushrooms, lettuce, broccoli, cream cheese and strawberry. Out of these ingredients, the team managed to churn out a menu of Broccoli veloute, Slow cooked beef brisket, Lamb variation and Cream cheese bavaroise.

-end-

Black Box Gala Dinner

Wednesday 4 May 2011

Team Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur

Lamb Variation

Lamb Flap Confit, Mushroom Roulade, Apple Compression

Velouté of Broccoli

Cheddar Chesse Custard, Smoked Cream with Thyme

Slow Cooked 65 C Beef Brisket

Basil Gnocchi, Caramelized Carrots, Demi Glaze

Strawberry

Cream Cheese & Bavarois, Kiwi Compote

World Association of Chefs Societies—News

The New WACS Continental Director For Asia: Rick Stephen from Singapore
24-05-2011

The new WACS Continental Director for Asia was chosen by a fair voting system during the recent Asian Presidents Forum at Disney Hotel in Hong Kong last week.

Rick Stephen, who is a certified master chef and the Executive Chef for SATS Ltd, won by a majority of votes. He succeeds John Sloane, the former Continental Director for Asia, who made the decision to step down a few months ago due to his increasing work commitments as Vice President of F&B at Resorts World Sentosa.

Says Rick, “I hope to represent the member countries and ensure they get their hearing. WACS is also responsible for a number of great programs like Train the Trainer and Chefs Without Borders and I need to make sure the Asian members have access to these programmes.”

At the Asian Presidents Forum, John Sloane also added that he will still be supporting the various WACS initative from the background, and generously made the offer to host the next Asian Presidents Forum 2012 in Singapore.

Gissur Gudmundsoon, President of WACS said, "John has worked hard in his role and he has made a big difference. For that, we want to thank him and we look forward to his future contributions."

Up Close and Personal with Rick Stephen
The New WACS Asia Continental Director shares more about his vision.

Aussie ex-pat and Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS) Executive Chef Rick Stephen has been elected to the board of the World Association of Chefs’ Societies as Continental Director for the Asian region.

Rick replaces current Continental Director John Sloane, who resigned during his second term to focus on his role as Vice President of Food and Beverage at Resorts World Sentosa.

A former culinary Olympian and a prolific international judge, Rick is passionate about education, improving the status of chefs and linking young chefs with new opportunities in the region.

“After John announced his resignation I was approached by the Singapore Chef’s Association about standing for election,” Rick explains.

“The Asian economy is buoyant and India and China are the fastest growing economies in the world. With this growth there are new hotels, resorts and lots of new opportunities for Asian chefs. With the travelling I currently do for work and judging I’m in an ideal position to promote our profession, and I thought I could do even more as Continental Director.”

HKYC and WACS

The Hong Kong Young Chef Club Members worked throughout the four days of HOFEX

running the WACS Stand and supporting the chefs corner feeding all the hungry chefs and judges.

HOFEX Day 1 Judges

Head Judges

Here are the 30 international and 50 local Culinary Judges

HOFEX Gourmet Team

Singapore and South Korea

HOFEX Barramundi Hot Cooking

8th Salon Culinaire Indonesia Picture Galleries

Many thanks to all the photographers at the 8th Salon Culinaire Indonesia for sharing these wonderful pictures...

Enjoy!!! :)

WACS Congress Official web site

WACS Young Chefs readers

Do check out the official 35th WACS Congress website.

On the site you will find all the information you will need to attend the 35th WACS congress in Daejeon Korea in May 2012.

http://www.wacs2012.org

2nd Asian Junior Chefs Challenge

2nd Asian Junior Chefs Challenge

20 Teams of 3 Participants & 1 Team Captain

3 Courses for 6 PAX

Competition was hotly contested by participants from Singapore, Malaysia, U.A.E., & the host country, Indonesia

If you are unable to view the slideshow, please click on this link:

https://picasaweb.google.com/wacsjunior/8thSalonCulinaire2011InJakartaIndonesia?feat=directlink

RWS donates S$300,000 to Japanese Red Cross Society

RWS donates S$300,000 to Japanese Red Cross Society.

The RWS-Japan Relief Fund collection has come to a close and we sincerely thank all our team members for giving what they could. Together we managed to raise S$157,811.22! Resorts World Sentosa as a company topped it up to S$300,000. This money will be sent the Japanese Red Cross Society in aid of tsunami relief efforts in Japan. Japanese soccer superstar, Mr Hidetoshi Nakata, was also present to lend his support and penned his thoughts and well-wishes on a card. Here are some words from our colleagues in Genting International Japan,   Find out more about the Fund Raising in the latest issue of aRWSome!

Singapore Junior Chefs Club

Singapore Junior Chefs Club Bakes Cookies to Raise Funds for Japan!Dear Chefs and friend of the culinary world, As what the SJCC did 5 years ago for the Indonesia Tsunami, we will be baking cookie and selling them to all culinary schools, hotels, SCA and suppliers at $10 per bottle. Our target for this fund raising is to raise aleast 5K for the red cross to help the needs in japan.We will be gathering the orders and do the baking and packing at TP BCS. Which will be either this sat or next sat. (baking and packing will be done by SJCC committee, junior culinary team and BCS students)We hope that you will support us and buy some cookies, and help spread the word.

For orders, kindly email us at sjcc_elvin@yahoo.com

Yours sincerely,

Elvin ChewPresident SJCC

These Pictures Live from the Kitchens

Singapore Junior Chefs Club Raise Funds for Japan in Cookie Bake.

$10 will get you 400g of freshly baked cookies.