chefWHERE: Bocuse d’Or
Still on the topic of culinary competitions, I am proud to say that Les Toques Blanches Philippines (LTB) is at the forefront of developing, organizing and supporting Filipino chefs for international culinary competitions. Our goal is to show that the Filipino chef is a professional chef of world standard. Since 2007, we have been quite successful in that. Winning the Best of the Best Trophy in Hong Kong for the Gourmet Team Challenge, where our team of five chefs prepared a cold buffet of 27 different items in 24 hours. In 2008, we won 14 medals at the Food Hotel Asia Singapore. Then in 2009, back to Hong Kong and finishing with a silver. Not shabby at all!
Culinary competitions are very hard on their own, and much harder if done in another country. And the chef who makes this all possible is Ariel Manuel of Lolo Dad’s Café and Brasserie 6750. He is the most bemedaled Filipino chef on the planet. If not as champ in every culinary competition he has joined in, he has finished at least in the top three. Ariel thrives on competition and lives for it. We are lucky to have a Filipino chef like him.
An excellent chef likewise needs an excellent team to handle logistics, PR, equipment and supply of competition grade ingredients. This is where the rest of the core team comes in. Chef Fernando Aracama (of Canteen, MyThai, and Cuisine restaurants), Othmar Frei (of Santis Deli and LTB President), Mike Aguas (of Vulcan Resources for the displays and molds used in competition), Nana Nadal (Nana Nadal PR and Events Management) and I support Team Captain Chef Ariel, our other competing chefs and young apprentices in any way for them to be able to perform at their best and learn from the best at competitions.
This year we have a welcome addition to our LTB Culinary Team, French Chef Cyrille Soenen of Restaurant Cicou. Likewise, we have a new challenge ahead of us, the Bocuse d'Or Asia in Shanghai on 17 March 2010. Rules sound simple enough: chef and apprentice (under 21) prepare 14 portions of a fish dish (halibut this year) with two garnishes presented on a platter in three hours. Dish is served to 12 judges, each representing a competing country: Philippines, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Indonesia, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, India and Cambodia. Dishes are scored out of 60 points (40 for taste, 20 for presentation, highest and lowest scores are omitted, remaining scores totaled and averaged). Only the top four of the Bocuse d’Or Asia will have a right to compete against the top 24 teams of the world at the Bocuse d’Or World Finals in Lyon, France on January 2011. Chef Cyrille as head coach will guide Chef Ariel and our two apprentices, David Uy and TJ Abello in preparing the dish to Bocuse d’Or standards. Chef Cyrille was an apprentice of the 1991 Bocuse d’Or Winner Michel Roth while working at the Ritz in Paris.
We are very excited and we welcome your support! We are very grateful to our sponsors: Werdenberg International Corp./Santis Deli, Meat and Livestock Australia, Wusthof Knives, Tefal Pans, PTC/ESV and Chef Revival Apparel. More sponsorship opportunities are available; please email me at education@ltbchefs-phils.com. And you can find updates on the team at www.ltbchefs-phils.com together with pictures, recipes and the complete list of team members from our other culinary competitions. Go Team Philippines!