The great gulfood cook-off

Chefs check out the Salon Culinaire creations - several categories involve months of planning and preparation as chefs try to outdo each other's creat

Industry progression
Bettering the industry as a whole, as well as showcasing talent, is clearly an admirable aspect of the competition, which is why, explains Micheel, the competition judges are also expected to be of a high standard.

“The judges have to be approved judges for The World Association of Chefs and we have a lot of judges coming [to Salon Culinaire] for many years and we bring the guys back who were very good in terms of feedback to the competitors.

There are always some people who don’t take it too seriously, but we obviously bring the guys back who take it very seriously, and who give very good feedback,” he explains.

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The feedback for chefs, and of course the possibility of winning an award, has meant that the number of chefs taking part in the competition continues to rise — so much so that some categories, such as the coveted live-cooking classes, are filled several months before the competition begins.

“There is a limit [of chefs] per hotel and then who comes first gets in first,” says Micheel.

“It is not because you are in a seven-star hotel that we kick a two-star hotel out — we are all the same. When we have the chefs in the Emirates Culinary Guild it is not about where we work, it is that we are chefs, we are colleagues.

“We also have chefs from independent restaurants [participating], we even have, for example, one category which is whole lamb, and they have to cut it down in different categories (such as the most value that you can get out of the whole lamb, and the best pieces for cooking) and we have butchers from shopping malls also — we have a butcher from Carrefour there, we have a butcher from Spinney’s, so it is not only restaurants who participate,” he adds.

Although there are participants from independent outlets participating in the show, Micheel admits that it is often chefs from big-name hotels that walk away with the prizes but, he asserts, this is often down to training and experience.

“In the last few years it is always the same five or six hotels that are doing extremely well in the competition,” he reveals.

“It also depends a lot on how much a chef is supporting the guys — you have some hotels where junior chefs would like to take part, but they don’t get the support from the hotel, from the executive chef, and you have other hotels which are supporting it a lot, so obviously they are doing well because they are training more for it and they are doing much better,” he adds.

The big prize for the show is the trophy for best gastronomy cook — which involves participants taking part in two live cooking classes along with preparing a five-course set menu. This is certainly no mean feat, but of course pushing the bar in Salon Culinaire is what has kept the quality of competitors exceptionally high.

“It is not like it was 15, 20 years back when we gave medals to moderate people,” explains Micheel.

“A person who would have won a gold medal in Dubai 10 years ago would get nothing now for the same work. Now we are at the highest level. Anyone who wins a gold medal here can win it anywhere in the world,” he adds.