26 October 2016 – The Singapore National Culinary Team is the champion for the Culinary Olympics 2016, scoring double gold for its Cold Display and Hot Cooking categories.
The Culinary Olympics is one of the most prestigious international culinary competitions in the world. Held in Erfurt , Germany every four years, this year’s edition took place from 21 – 26 October 2016, with 30 of the world’s top national teams participating.
The Singapore National Culinary Team, which has a stellar reputation in international culinary competitions, has been training for up to a year for the competition. It is the first time it has won the championship.
The team is led by Chef Louis Tay (Executive Chef, Swissotel Merchant Court), who has a long list of competition accolades, and recently led the Singapore National Culinary Team to clinch the championship title for the third time at the Culinary World Cup in Luxembourg.
The team for Culinary Olympics 2016 has been handpicked based on their experience, commitment and potential. It is made up of Team Captain Teo Yeow Siang (Lavish Catering) and Team Members Triston Fang (Ocean Restaurant by Cat Cora, Resorts World Sentosa ) , Alan Wong (Lavish Catering), Roy Lim (Unilever FoodSolutions) and pastry chef Alex Chong (Regent Hotel) .
For the Culinary Olympics, the team has to go through a 2-part competition, which tests their perfection in techniques and creativity .The first if the Cold Display, where they have to set-up an exhibition table comprising of: 4 different kinds of finger food 6 pax, 1 cold festive/buffet platter for 8 pax, 3 different starters for 1 pax, 1 lacto-ovo vegetarian three-course lunch menu for 1 pax, 1 festive menu for 1 pax. The pastry set-up includes: 1 show item, 4 different individual plated desserts for 1 pax and Display of sweet biscuits, chocolates, petits-fours or friandises.
The second part of the competition is the hot cooking segment, where they have to prepare 110 portions of a 3-course meal – an appetiser (with seafood/fish as main ingredient or a combination of both), main course (using butcher’s meat, poultry or game or combination) dessert (of contrasting in textures and temperatures).
Says Team Manager Louis Tay, “It has been a very intense period for us as a culinary competition of this level is both emotionally and physically intense. The team has sacrificed a lot of time and sleep. There are so many people we need to thank. Firstly, the Singapore Chefs’ Association for backing us up and the sponsors who made all this possible. We are very grateful to our mentors, who have also spent a lot of time walking this journey with us, refining our dishes so we can reach perfection. And lastly, the team members and their families for committing so many months of their life to this mission. We are proud for our performance, and for representing Singapore the best way possible.”
