Barilla sponsorship at Salon Culinaire 2008
Salon Culinaire 2008
Salon Culinaire is a four day culinary event, dedicated to seminars, competitions and live cooking demonstrations which involves hundreds of young chefs getting together to demonstrate their skills in various cookery competitions. The event is organized by the Emirates Culinary Guild, which is the UAE’s association of professional chefs.
During the four days of the exibition, 982 chefs from the UAE took part in the following competitions: cake decoration, three-tier wedding cake, pastry showpiece, emirati cuisine, ice carving, fruit and vegetable carving, galla dinner table decorations, practical cookery, arabic mezzeh and butchery.
The judging is done by experienced Corporate and Executive Chefs, and this year they flew to Dubai from South Africa, Iceland, Netherlands, India, Germany, Switzerland, Egypt, Singapore, Argentine, USA and UK to join the Guild of strict, but fair judges.
The Salon 2008 judges were: Otto Weibel and Marco Bruschweiler from Switzerland, Robert Openeder, Norbert Girnth, Karl Heinz Haase and Werner Kemmiringer from Germany, Scott Webser and Bernd Uber from Australia, Hubert Oberhollenzer from Italy, Ralph Porciani and Andrew Bennett from the UK. South Africans Garth Stroebel and Paul Hartmann, Wouter Lap from Holland, Raman Khanna from India, Egyptian Tarek Mouriess and Gissur Gudmundson from Iceland.
Competitions sponsored by Barilla
Barilla sponsored two classes (competitions) in Salon Sulinaire: Five Course Gourmet Dinner Menu and Pasta live cooking. For the Five – Course Gourmet dinner, the contestants were required to:
- Present a plated five-course gourmet meal for one person
- cold appetizer,
- soup,
- hot appetizer,
- main course with its garnish,
- dessert.
- Hot food must be presented cold on appropriate plates, and coated with aspic or clear gelatine for preservation.
- The food weight of the five plates should be 600/700 gms, and the maximum area for display w90 cm x d75cm.
- Description and recipes are required (type written)
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The Pasta – live cooking was a new class for 2008 specially introduced by Barilla. The challenge is to be as creative and innovative as possible, and the Judges look for imaginative recipes and use of ingredients, as well as great taste (in line with WACS rules). The competitors were required to:
- Prepare and present, within one hour, two plates each of three different pasta main-courses, using Barilla Pasta.
- The 1st main course must be presented 20 minutes, the 2nd main course 40 minutes and the 3rd main course 60 minutes, after the start of the competition.
- Dishes with appropriate garnish should be on individual plates (of 31cm diameter) and not exceed 250g total food weight (excluding sauces).
- Description and recipes are required (typewritten, 2 copies)
Each class had its own area with extensive Barilla branding such as skirting for the display tables, posters, stickers, table tents, etc. During the Pasta live cooking competition, the chefs were ofcourse only using Barilla pasta, and Barilla products were prominently displayed next to the cooking station of each competitor.
The Five Course Gourmet Dinner Menu competition had a total of 127 entries and was held for three days. Chefs from prestigious hotels such as Burj Al Arab, Kempinski, Sheraton, Mina A'Salam, Al Murooj Rotana, Shangri-La, Oberoi, Dubai World Trade Centre, Fairmont, Raffles, Hilton, Radisson SAS, Grosvenor House, etc. put all their efforts to create special and innovative dishes to impress the judges, fighting for the top honors of being awarded the title of Best Gastronomist. of their creations.
The Pasta live cooking class, had 41 entries and was held over 4 days, and also here Chefs from the top establishments were competing, eg Jumeirah Retaurants, Al Morooj Rotana, Emirates Flight Catering, Hilton, Le Royal Meridien, Grosvenor House, Marriott, Shangri-La, Radison SAS, Zabeel kitchen, Dubai World Trade Centre, etc. of the Chefs in action.
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The winners
The award of Best Gastronomist 2008 went to Chef Juraj Kalna, who is Head Chef of The Edge Restaurant, and the runner-up was his Sous Chef Yerson Behi, with both receiving gold medals for their supreme performance in the Five Course Gourmet Dinner Menu competition. The winning dishes of this competition were taken from The Edge’s menu. of the winners and their creations.
Medal winners in the Pasta Cooking competition were Chefs from World Trade Center, Radisson SAS Deira and The Edge. Also here the competition was extremely fierce, but the judging standards were so high that nobody managed to get gold or silver medals.
The Edge is a private fine dinning restaurant, situated in the heart of Dubai International Financial Center. Originally from Slovakia, Chef Juraj Kalna came to Dubai seven years ago and joined Jumeirah Emirates Towers as Executive Sous Chef, and after four years of successful work he was offered the position of Head Chef in The Edge. He joined the opening team, and for the past two years is considered one of the best chefs in the company. Chef Juraj described the cuisine of The Edge as: “Just good food emphasizing on fresh and most exclusive ingredients”. of Chef Juraj, Chef Yerson, and their winning team.
Emirates Snack Foods congratulates Chefs Juraj and Yerson with their extraordinary performances, and we trust that they will put the the special prizes of Italian gastronomy books and special Academia Barilla gift boxes - offered by Pier Pavesi of Barilla - to very good use.
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