Gulfood preview: Salon Culinaire

One of the most anticipated cooking competitions in the region takes place this month at Gulfood.

The annual Emirates Culinary Guild Salon Culinaire, comprising a series of practical and display-based culinary competitions, will test the skills of a cross section of professional chefs, pastry chefs, cooks and bakers, while celebrating the preparation and presentation of all things food.

Uwe Micheel, president of Emirates Culinary Guide, told Caterer Middle East that by late January the competition had received 1,117 entries from 95 different hotels around thre world.

He added: “All live cooking classes are now full [as of 24 January] and we have hotels on the waiting list to get in.”

Some of Salon Culinaire’s competitions are entered by single competitors while others are designed as team events. Each competition is called a class and participants compete in everything from practical cooking competitions to buffet and banqueting show pieces.

Competitors are evaluated by a panel of renowned experts, mandated by the World Association of Chefs Societies (WACS) to judge culinary events across the globe. Gold, silver and bronze medals and certificates will be awarded, in addition to special trophies awarded to individuals who have attained excellence at the competition in their particular field.

For the crowds observing, Salon Culinaire is sight to behold bringing together eye-catching ice carvings — Micheel said he anticipates ordering 49 ice blocks in total — with artistically decorated buffet platters, unusual pastry and chocolate creations, and every manner of edible delights. And all these take place against a backdrop of four days of tense, real-time cookery competitions.

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Caterer Middle East spoke to Micheel, who, besides being president of Emirates Culinary Guide, is director of kitchens at Radisson Blu Dubai Deira Creek, about Salon Culinaire for its February issue. Read the issue here.

Who is The Emirates Culinary Guild?
Emirates Culinary Guild (ECG) is the UAE’s association of professional chefs. It is a non-profit-making organisation dedicated solely to the advancement of the culinary art of the UAE. It aims to encourage junior chefs, enhance the culinary prestige of the UAE and encourage UAE nationals to consider a career within the hospitality industry. The World Association of Chefs Societies (WACS) is a 102-nation fellowship comprising the world’s various professional chefs’ organisations and the ECG received its charter into WACS in 1994. WACS endorses the ECG as the authorised UAE culinary institute. This means the ECG has multi-national support for the staging of its various competitions, seminars and events — the highlight of which is Salon Culinaire.

What is your involvement with Salon Culinaire this year?
I am one of the key three organisers of Salon Culinaire; three of us have been working since March 2015 on the competition. The number of people involved is getting bigger now and during the actual show we will have around 40 senior members involved, in organising, marshalling, and judging. I will not judge due to time issues, plus my own team is competing. My main responsibility is securing partners and planning their involvement and exposure.

How many visiting judges do you have and from how many countries?
We do have over 30 judges coming from abroad, Canada, South Africa, Namibia, England, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, just to name a few countries, plus we do have our local Judges which are again from many different countries.

What are judges looking for at the show?
There are different judges specialised for different categories, like for the show pieces it is a lot about artistic skills and artistic impression, but for the live cooking 50% of the marks go towards taste, and the rest of skills, presentation and hygiene. Our 27 classes have different requirements.

What really impresses the judges?
This depends on the different categories but the most important is taste, presentation and actual cooking skills. Of course, judges will always look for new ideas and creativity.

What advice would you give to those competing?
Train, train and train! Make sure you are ready, research and practice, and ask advice from the experienced chefs. Don’t try dishes that you have never done before and taste your own dishes.