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“If you can stand the Heat”            

 HKYCC’s Hot Chef Team Challenge 2008 is a friendly culinary competition that once again brings all budding aspirants age 25 and below, who hunger for the excitement and exhilaration of a competition together for a little zest and creativity. The theme of this competition will be Tabasco, and competitors are expected to create Amuse Bouche with five kinds Tabasco seasonings as part of their ingredients. This competition will be on a team basis. Our aim of this competition is to offer more interaction between members, as well as to provide a venue for young talents to be nurtured.

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Visit by French Guest Chefs to the Hospitality Industry Training and Development Centre (HITDC)

By Andreas Muller

Rarely do we have the chance to enjoy two French guest chef lecturers from the Professional Hospitality Institute in Etoile, France on a stop-over to Sapporo in Japan.

Our trainee chefs had the opportunity to welcome Mr. Eric Lienard, Chief Instructor for Western Food Preparation and Mr. Joel Haumont, Chief Instructor for Pastry & Bakery Preparation during the period of 7-9 July 2008 at our Centre in Pokfulam.

Chef Eric and Chef Joel spent their entire first day communicating with our trainee chefs about what French Cuisine has to offer by demonstrating their culinary skills.

In preparation for the official “French Demonstration” on 8 July - for invited TDS members and professionals alike - both guest chefs emphasised the freshness and seasonal availability of the produce we had purchased all the way from France.

The demonstration of “French Cuisine” on 8 July was seen by over 50 chef trainees and guests who watched Chef Eric preparing a pike fish dish with French seasonal baby vegetables marinated in honey and herbs, and Chef Joel demonstrating the preparation steps for a souffléed peach tart.

Each guest and trainee chef had the opportunity to sample the dishes both chefs had prepared and all concluded that “French Cuisine” is well alive and well, throughout the globe.

On 9 July, the guest chefs prepared a four course French Dinner Menu for over 60 TDS Members, highlighting seasonal French ingredients.

For the visiting guest chefs and our trainee chefs, as well as for all our Instructors it was an educational experience and a fun-filled three-day course in French Cuisine we will surely remember for a long time.

Menu Degustation

Soupe Glacée Estivale et Velouté de Brebis

Chilled Estivale Soup with a Goat Velouté

*****

Pot au Feu de Saumon et St Jacques au Romarin

Salmon and Scallop ‘Pot-au-Feu’ with Rosemary

*****

Parmentier de Canard

Duck Parmentier

*****

Croquant de Noisettes et Infusion au Thé Vert

Hazelnut Croquant with Green Tea Infusion

*****

Café ou thé

Freshly Brewed Coffee or Tea

Friandises

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Source: BBC

A row is simmering in the kitchens of Europe after an American newspaper suggested that French cuisine had fallen behind the times.

The New York Times said in an article last month that Spain had overtaken France as the world's leading culinary nation.

A food critic for the newspaper, Arthur Lubow, wrote that French nouvelle cuisine, which revolutionised the culinary world in the 1970s, had "congealed into complacency"

But leading Paris chef Pierre Gagnaire has responded with a public statement saying that recent developments have shown an "unparalleled vigour" in French cooking.

Mr Gagnaire said that while French cuisine was modern and dynamic it had kept to its traditions and did not seek to be sensational.

Mr Lubow's article appears not to have been prompted by US anger at France's opposition to the Iraq war, which led many Americans to boycott French food and wine.

Catalan 'mecca'

He quotes another French chef, Marc Veyrat, as saying that the most creative cooks in Europe were now Spanish rather than French.

A number of US chefs concurred, saying that they always looked to Spain rather than France for new ideas.

Catalonia and the Basque Country were cited as the two main powerhouses in the recent rise of Spanish cuisine.

The author cited in particular the restaurant of El Bulli outside Barcelona, which he described as "a gastronome's once-before-you-die mecca".

The restaurant's chef, Ferran Adria, leads a movement combining traditional cuisine with new techniques, he said.

"Spain rising, France resting," Mr Lubow wrote. "The more attention I paid, the more I noticed everywhere this invidious comparison, between smug, stagnant France and innovative, daring Spain."

However, Mr Gagnaire dismissed the article as hot air.

"It is not enough to just go repeating something for it to become true," he said.

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By Steve Kingstone
BBC News, Roses

One of the world's leading restaurants started life as a mini-golf course.

Set in a stunning natural park near the Catalan town of Roses, it was opened in 1961 by a German homeopathic doctor.

Three years later, the pitch-and-putt business was abandoned in favour of gastronomy, although the name, El Bulli, survived. It refers to a breed of French bulldog favoured by the doctor's wife.

Today, El Bulli is a culinary phenomenon. With three Michelin stars, its constantly-evolving tasting menu has featured a stream of unlikely innovations: rose petals in tempura, monkfish liver fondue, grilled sole skin, ying-yang of chickpea water, and Rice Krispies paella - to name but a few.

Each creation is meticulously catalogued, and a documentary film is in production.

Open mouth, open mind

For three years running, El Bulli has been voted the world's best place to dine by Restaurant magazine

"El Bulli is a language which sometimes you can't understand, but all I ask is that people come with an open mind," explains Ferran Adria, who first arrived on work experience in 1983, and is today the restaurant's co-owner and chef de cuisine.

"For example, we do one dish which is a gently liquefied tea soup, with tiny jasmine and eucalyptus flowers floating on it, like water lilies.

"When you taste that, I don't know how to explain exactly what it is. And I made it! There are no reference points."

If Mr Adria sounds a trifle defensive, it is with good reason. For although many consider him the world's greatest chef, his handiwork has been publicly characterised as "pretentious" and "a public health issue" by a leading Spanish rival.

The accuser is Santi Santamaria, a culinary traditionalist who, in 1994, became the first Catalan to secure a coveted third Michelin star, for his restaurant Can Fabes.

In a new book, The Kitchen Laid Bare, Mr Santamaria takes aim at Adria and his disciples, for their use of synthetic additives - gels, preservatives and thickening agents - allegedly, at the expense of locally-produced, organic ingredients.

Techno-emotional cuisine

"I believe the interference of industry in haute cuisine has reached new levels, in part because of your work," writes Mr Santamaria in an open letter to Mr Adria.

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WACS Junior Chefs Presentation to the Executive Committee

14^th July 2008

 Status of Junior Chef Clubs currently registered with WACS

 Singapore – Singapore Junior Chefs Club, established in 2004.  Membership to date is approximately 260 members.

Hong Kong – Hong Kong Young Chefs Club, established in 2007. Membership to date is about 150 members.

Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka Junior Chefs Club, established in 2007.  Membership to date is 76 members.

Canada – Junior Chapters of the Canadian Chef Federation, established in 1959.  Junior membership to date is 408 members.

Singapore Junior Chefs Club is currently working with young chefs in Bali and the Philippines to advise and help establish junior clubs there.

There are only 4 junior clubs registered with WACS, with two more potentials, making a total of 6 (out of some 77 member nations as of the 33^rd congress). 

Of those 6 clubs, 5 are in Asia, the 6^th in North America.  There is no representation from any part of Europe, Africa or the Pacific, although it is a given that there must be many juniors already there.  They just haven’t registered with WACS.
 

1. What can we do to get more Juniors to attend WACS congresses? 

Cost is usually the deciding factor for any junior members to attend a congress or forum.  The registration fee for the 2008 WACS Congress in Dubai was US$420 per junior representative, not inclusive of airfare or accommodation.  As a specific example, Hong Kong originally intended to send two delegates but after calculating the cost, it would have amounted to nearly US$2500 for each delegate, which the Hong Kong Young Chefs Club simply could not afford. 

Suggestions to rectify a similar situation with other clubs for future congresses include:

-          Fundraisers by the junior clubs (this requires sufficient notice and planning).

-          Sponsorship from suppliers (there may be little or no incentive for suppliers to pay for a junior to attend a congress bearing logos and marketing material outside of the supplier’s region).

-          Lowering or even waiving the registration fee for junior delegates.

-          Offering discounts or advice on how to find lower airfares and accommodation.

The format of junior forums in the congress needs to be overhauled so that the content is educational, interactive and stimulating to juniors.  In addition, there need to be greater opportunities for networking and group interaction.  Ideally, the junior chefs should have some say in what they would like to see in a junior forum, and can be more involved in the development and planning of the program. 

Suggestions for activities in future forums include:

-          Brief reports from each junior club or representative, allowing the various nations to be familiarized with each other.

-          Breaking off into small groups for topic discussions (topics can be nominated by the juniors themselves and then presentations made to the junior forum).

-          More hands-on interaction in demonstrations, in small groups (the less passive a demo is, the less likely someone is to fall asleep in the back of the room).

-          More cultural experiences within the host country (one idea would be to have the juniors of the host nation do cooking demos on their own cuisine)

-          More educational site visits, such as local farms, supermarkets, kitchens, catering operations, food processing facilities.

-          Closer guidance with sponsors on their presentations to juniors (being mindful of the fact that the average attention span of a late adolescent is not much more than 30 minutes).

2. What can we do to get all junior clubs around the world to be part of WACS?

No doubt there are many junior clubs and junior chefs in WACS member nations that are simply not being represented in WACS because of lack of communication.  Having WACS Young Chef Ambassadors and a Junior Chef Liaison in the Communications/Marketing Committee will help to rectify this. 

As the Young Chefs Ambassadors, we need to reach out to the national association presidents of all member nations to find out where there are junior clubs or simply someone we can liaise with regarding junior chef matters. 

We are fully aware of the fact that some member nations cannot have a single junior chef club represent all their interests as there may be too many junior chapters, as in the case of Germany and the United States, so we must approach the national presidents with this in mind. 

We must not give the impression that every member nation has to form a junior “club” simply to be part of WACS, but rather that it is in the interests of the culinary trade at the local and international level that junior chefs need to be recognized as the future of our industry. 

Through the Continental Directors, we can find out how to reach all the national presidents, and even potential or actual junior chef liaisons.  We can then contact them and persuade them to register their juniors as WACS members. 

The stronger the body of juniors within WACS, the more each junior member can accomplish simply because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  A junior club would have greater bargaining power with a potential sponsor if they were part of a larger body.  To this end, the more international recognition WACS receives, the greater benefit there would be to all its members. 
 

3. What do we need to do regarding the Hans Bueschkens Junior Competition?

We might consider encouraging each member nation to have a local level Hans Bueschkens Junior Competition in order to determine the final national representative competing during the congress.  This would have the effect of creating greater awareness around the world for the Hans Bueschkens competition and raise the profile of the finals during the congress (the more work you have to put in to win, the sweeter the victory).  The Hans Bueschkens Junior Competition should be about the “best of the best” from each nation coming to the congress and competing with their peers for the title of the top junior competition chef in the world.  We could consider then renaming it the “Hans Bueschkens Junior Chefs World Championship”.

Hans Bueschkens also needs to be better publicized and marketed.  Juniors would not remember Hans Bueschkens, but should be made aware of the man this competition is named in honour of. 

The facilities made available for hosting this competition should be carefully monitored by the Culinary Committee to ensure that it gives the maximum exposure of the contestants to the public, without allowing the public to interfere with the competitors themselves.    
 

4. What do Juniors around the world want out of WACS?

As a clarification, juniors as individuals don’t join WACS.  They join chef associations which may or may not already be members of WACS. 

In a nutshell, juniors around the world choose to join any chef associations because they hope it will benefit their careers.  This could be summed in the following:

-          Recognition – By being part of a chef association, juniors hope they will be part of something greater than themselves, which will lead to more opportunities in the industry

-          Exposure – WACS can create opportunities for junior chefs to see and better comprehend cuisines and cultures other than their own

-          Guidance – Juniors want to be able to tap into the experiences of those who have gone before them to find direction, motivation and encouragement

-          Knowledge – Juniors don’t know all the answers, but they look to senior chefs for knowledge
 

5. How can WACS help with motivating young people to learn to be a chef?

-          Go to the high schools and even grade schools and talk to the kids. 

-          Grab their interest with cooking demonstrations.

-          Use young chefs because they’re easier to relate to and less intimidating.

-          Invite high school students to observe culinary competitions.

-          Facilitate tours of working kitchens.

-          Market and up sell WACS more to the public through the media.

-          Promote the image of chefs in the world.
 

6. How can we raise funds to use for Junior Programs?

At the international level, fundraisers (in the sense of events) are difficult.  The logistics of trying to host an international fundraiser would create many challenges.  However, there are many possible ways in which to raise funds for junior programs. 

The first choice for raising funds would be to attract sponsorship for any junior events such as competitions, forums, exchanges, etc.  As most junior clubs do not have much experience in dealing with sponsors, we often look to our senior brethren for help.  This may not always serve our purposes.  Many sponsors are delighted to deal directly with junior chefs and doing so helps to elevate the cause and profile of juniors worldwide.  Better sharing of knowledge and experience between junior and “senior” chefs would help juniors to do it themselves rather than always depend on others.

WACS as an organization of chefs for chefs is constantly striving to raise its own profile in the public eye and the international community.  The more credibility WACS has and the better it is known, the stronger the position of its members when dealing with sponsors.  Being part of WACS in and of itself should be all the edge its members need, but oftentimes we hear that people simply have never heard of WACS.  This in part falls to WACS itself, but also to its member associations to rectify. 

We often hear that WACS needs to “push” its members to promote WACS within their own countries or regions, that somehow promoting WACS is more work.  This should not be the case.  Member associations should be reminded that it is simply in their own best interests that WACS becomes better known and recognized.  A single chef association does not have as much bargaining power with a sponsor as for example over 80 chef associations from all across the globe.  Junior chefs have an opportunity to offer that reminder.  Coming from junior chefs, it is more difficult to ignore, “from the mouths of babes,” as it were. 
 

7. Do you think a scholarship program is important?

Absolutely.  It is often said that junior chefs are the future of our profession.  Education is the key to making it so.  A scholarship program can serve junior chefs in the following ways:

-          For those who might not be able to afford a formal education in the culinary arts, it gives them a chance they might not already have had.

-     A scholarship program depending on its nature can also serve as recognition or reward for those juniors striving towards excellence, which has the added benefit of encouraging others to do the same and elevating the standard across the whole industry.

-     A WACS scholarship program reinforces the image of WACS as a chef organization that is concerned with education.  Anything that improves the public image of WACS also strengthens the positions of its members.

-     Through sponsors, a scholarship creates the opportunity for a better relationship between juniors and suppliers, which can only benefit WACS in the future
 

8. Would an International Exchange program be a good idea?

Not only is it a good idea.  It should be imperative to the junior chefs of WACS. Those who have traveled abroad and experienced other cultures have an advantage over those who have not in that they are more open-minded and better informed.  It is a tragedy when a junior chef can say he has never left his home town or country to see more of the world. 

WACS creates the opportunity for dialogue between member nations to facilitate these kinds of exchanges simply by virtue of its being a global organization.  It is the ideal setting for forming relationships and partnerships, and has already begun to bear fruit. 

There is already in place an international exchange program between Norway and Canada, which will further expand to include Russia and South Africa.  Initiatives such as these must be supported by WACS from their infancy and nurtured so that they are not allowed to wither and die on the vine. 

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