Taste the World win for Michelin star chef

Michelin-starred chef André Gerrits, of Amsterdam-based farm restaurant ‘t Amsterdammertje, has won the 'Taste the World' trophy at Taste of Abu Dhabi.

As the global airline partner of 15 Taste Festivals across the world, Etihad Airways flew 10 chefs to the event to compete in the competition, from November 10-12.

These finalists were selected at local Taste Festivals held during 2016, with Gerrits seeing off competition from Pascal Aussignac from the Club Gascon, London; Michael Hunter from Antler Restaurant, Toronto; Andrea Provenzani, from Il Liberty, Milan; Vitaly Tikhonov from G.Graf, Moscow; Siu Hin Chi from Duddell’s, Hong Kong; Scott Bridger from Bib & Tucker and May Street Larder, Perth; Sylvestre Wahid from Restaurant Sylvestre, Paris; Francesco Apreda from Imago, Rome; and Nelly Robertson from Nel in Sydney.

Etihad Airways CEO Peter Baumgartner presented the trophy to Gerrits, who also won two first class tickets to any destination on the airline's network, on the last day of the festival.

Gerrits will also be featured in the airline’s Etihad Inflight magazine and will have the opportunity to host a cooking demonstration at his next local Taste Festival.

Etihad Airways' association with Taste Festivals began in March 2016 with events in Dubai, Sydney and Hong Kong, culminating with Taste of Abu Dhabi.

The airline also recently signed an agreement with Tourism Australia to be the official airline partner of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards next year, so it will fly chefs and food journalists to Melbourne for the April 2017 event.