Barasti’s Gould agreed that such competitions were key to supporting the region’s female chefs.

“As this competition shows, there are a number of promising female chefs coming through and its important to have events like this where they can showcase their skills and learn as they do so.

“It would be great to see more female chefs appearing in the Salon Culinaire in future,” she added.

Nestlé’s Sidhu said he hoped to take the Female Chef of the Year competition “to an even higher level”, encouraging more female chefs to participate.

“To establish the event as a must-attend in the annual culinary calendar would be extremely satisfying for me,” he said.

Meanwhile Gardner said that the target for next year was to have “more participants and tougher competition”, in order to prepare the participants for bigger events.

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“To do this, we need to judge their dishes as strictly as all other competitions — they must be prepared to compete with the best,” she explained.

“This year for the first time ever we also introduced a feedback session where each lady was addressed by the judges, who then gave them feedback on their specific dishes and where they could improve for next year,” she added.

“We felt this added great value for the participants, not only for Female Chef of the Year 2010 but also in their careers.”

Gardner added that there were some “very interesting new developments already in store for Female Chef of the Year 2010 — but we will be keeping you in suspense, so watch this space!”

FEMALE CHEF OF THE YEAR 2009 WINNERS:

1) Maryam Darwesh (The Westin Dubai)
2) Nurkyz Bekturova (Grand Hyatt Dubai)
3) Magdalene Mbuuko (Raffles Dubai)
 

 

Competition judges:

• Chef Pamela Gould ( Chef de Cuisine – Barasti Bar)
• Gabriele Kurz (Chef de Cuisine – Magnolia)
• Chef Zain Sidhu (Advisory Chef – Nestle Professional)


 

To see our picture gallery of the competition itself, click here.