Salon Culinaire
While primarily a business hub, Gulfood also features aspects that will dazzle and enthral. One major highlight for Napier is the Emirates International Salon Culinaire, organised by the Emirates Culinary Guild. “It is the most spectacular display of talented chefs from the region,” he says, “showcasing some incredible plates that will delight even the most jaded palate.”

More than 1300 chefs are expected to compete in 22 categories spanning all corners of the kitchen, from tapas and a five-course gourmet dinner menu to cake decorating and ice carving, which Napier describes as “truly breathtaking”.

Director of kitchens at Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek and president of the Emirates Culinary Guild, Uwe Micheel has been busy preparing for the biggest competition to date. He says: “Last year we had people fly over from 10 different countries. This year we have guys from Sri Lanka, Thailand and a team of eight chefs from Canada”.

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It is a far cry from its beginnings more than two decades ago. Back then it used to be “a small competition with a few people in the desert,” explains Micheel. It has grown into one of the most prestigious catering competitions on earth, and this year promises to be unmissable. Christophe Prud’homme, executive chef at Al Bustan Rotana, has seven of his chefs entering.

“The competition serves as inspiration to their career, it is a goal that they strive to achieve,” he says. “They want to challenge themselves and to see how much they can win or lose trying to reach the best of their field.”

Chefs taking part have been preparing for weeks geting their dishes up to world-class standards. Prud’homme says that his chefs have been working 20 hours a day. “They do the normal operation and then go and practise for Salon Culinaire. Once you have the goal in your head you cannot stop. They are in a dream when they work. They are breathing it. They are sleeping with it. They need to perfect it.”

For Prud’homme, it is worth it for the thrill of seeing chefs working in front of visitors: “The live cooking classes are always exciting. It is instinct food, people cooking right in front of you. How can that compare to a cake someone made last month?”
He adds: “People look for freshness. They want to see the chef adding the salt and pepper, stirring it, rocking the pan back and forth. When you have a piece of chicken or fish in front of you, you are adding the flavours right there and then, you are putting yourself into it.”

Micheel agrees, but says that the highlight of the competition is seeing competing chefs come together and show “team spirit”. “We have our day-to-day work where we are all competing against each other, trying to catch the guests from one another, but when we come together we are all working as one team and this is quite extreme. There are so many different nationalities, but we are all chefs here and we are all the same. We are all working to the same goal. I do not see this anywhere else in the world when so many chefs work so closely together.”

“The main aim of every competition you enter is to learn,” says Micheel. “Learn from your mistakes, learn from the other chefs’ mistakes, or from what they did well. And make new friends.”

Sponsor of the seafood class and Gulfood exhibitor in the Scottish pavilion hosted by Scottish Development International, Label Rouge Scottish Salmon, says Salon Culinaire is a fantastic way to highlight “culinary stars of the future”.

This is even truer now as, for the first time, there is a Young Chef of the Year trophy, allowing chefs aged 21 to 25 to battle it out among their contemporaries. Micheel says: “It is a way to push and develop our junior chefs, because one day we will have to stop and our junior chefs will have to be ready.”

Micheel explains that it is not about winning, it is about sharing experience and knowledge. “Nobody can take from you what is under your hat. What is in your pocket, people can take from you. Whatever you learn, no one can ever take away from you and more knowledge becomes more power.”

The same is true of the whole event. From the high culinary flair on show, to the latest innovations, ideas and industry research, Gulfood is a hub of activity where you can pick up knowledge and talk to experts from around the world to enhance not only your business, but the entire F&B industry.

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