Our Salon Culinaire success

The Salon Culinaire is the most prestigious culinary event in the region, and last week my colleagues at Dubai World Trade Centre did themselves proud once more.

Part of Gulfood 2018, the competition attracted 1,468 chefs from around the region, including 26 from our team here at DWTC. They competed across a wide range of disciplines, from butchery to showpiece carving and live cooking, all in front of a prestigious panel of judges appointed by the World Association of Chef Societies.

The pressure was high and the pace exceptionally tough, but our team came home with 10 gold medals, 12 silver medals, 13 bronze medals and eight merit awards. As always they demonstrated the very best in gastronomic and artistic skills, and this is reflected in the fact that DWTC was awarded ‘Best Effort by an Individual Establishment’ for the eighth consecutive year.

For a taste of the action, take a look at the video below. It follows the efforts of one of our chefs, Shiyju Varghese, who took part in both the five-course gourmet dinner menu and the four-course vegetarian menu classes.

Special mention is reserved for our master baker, Taha Boudhib, who received gold with distinction honours in the cake decoration practical. This is the highest accolade a chef can be awarded and is only given to those chefs who achieve a perfect score of 100.

 What makes these plaudits extra special is that our chefs are not only competing in the event, they are also working as per normal servicing the 97,000 attendees and 5,000 exhibitors at Gulfood.

 So, as you can imagine, it was an incredibly busy week and sleep was hard to come by – which makes the achievements of our team even more impressive. Well done!