Recently in Bocuse d'Or Category

Michelin-starred chef Simon Hulstone has been appointed as the UK ambassador for Scotch Lamb.

Quality Meat Scotland has named the UK's Bocuse d'Or contestant and head chef at the Elephant restaurant in Torquay, Devon, one of four international chef ambassadors.

The four chefs were awarded their ambassadorship in the presence of Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal at an event held at the Butchers Hall in the City of London last week.

The remaining ambassadors are Christophe Marguin for France, who is the chef proprietor of Restaurant Christophe Marguin near Lyon. He is also the president of Toques Blanches Lyonnais and Toques Blanche du Monde and worked at London's Connaught hotel and at Scotland's Inverlochy Castle in the early 1990s before returning to France to run his family's restaurant.

Meanwhile the ambassador for the Netherlands is Cees Helder, who together with his wife Cees owned and ran the Parkheuvel in Rotterdam, the first Dutch restaurant to be awarded three Michelin stars.

Pierluigi Portinari is the new Scotch Beef and Lamb ambassador for Italy, who along with his brother Nicola, runs the two-Michelin-starred Ristorante La Peca in Vicenza.

Quality Meat Scotland this year supplied Scotch lamb to the 24 finalists competing in the Bocuse d'Or in Lyon, the most prestigious culinary competition in the world.

French gastronomy is in crisis and to save it 15 of the country's most illustrious chefs have joined forces to launch a campaign to secure its culinary future.

With Tokyo recently overtaking Paris as the world's gastronomic capital with the most Michelin-starred restaurants, critical voices have got louder than ever arguing French cuisine has for too long rested on its laurels.

Although declared part of the world's heritage by the United Nations, French cuisine stands accused of not moving with the times and failing to adapt to a changing culinary world order in which a new generation of chefs continually pushes the boundaries.

The final straw came last week, when for the first time ever, France failed to make it onto the podium at the prestigious Bocuse d'Or competition in Lyon, which was dominated by Scandinavian countries.

With all that in mind, the crème de la crème of French Michelin-starred chefs gathered yesterday at the restaurant 58 Tour Eiffel in Paris to unveil the country's first chef lobbying group: the Collège Culinaire de France.

With honorary members Paul Bocuse, Michel Guérard and Pierre Troisgros, and founding members including Joël Robuchon, Guy Savoy, Alain Ducasse, Anne-Sophie Pic, Marc Haeberlin and Yannick Alléno, it's obvious they mean business.

Their objectives are straightforward: Create an organisation that defends the interests of French gastronomy. Through advocating the industry as an "economic power", and opening the doors of the country's top restaurants to train up a new generation of French master chefs, it aims to secure France's future as the world-leader of gastronomy.

The group also plans to establish a museum of gastronomy in Paris and will publish an annual list of thousands of the finest French products and producers to help boost exports and awareness worldwide.

After Team UK, led by Simon Hulstone, finished only in 13th place at the prestigious Bocuse d'Or competition in Lyon earlier this week, UK judge Brian Turner reflects on the results.

The president of the Academy of Culinary Arts, says we should not be too disappointed with the result and that Team UK's professionalism and dedication will help inspire a new generation of candidates.

"While we did expect a higher position, even a place on the podium, we cannot be too downbeat about the final outcome. What happened in Lyon has proved that we need to delve deeper into what makes a winner and increase our understanding of what the majority of judges are looking for.

"The standard of entry this time was incredible and right now the UK simply can't match the level of commitment that these winning chefs can give [to the competition]. Rasmus Kofoed spent the last eight years of his life preparing to win the gold and has already won the bronze and silver. 

"Regardless of our position in Lyon, Simon's ability and passion for representing his country has captured the imagination of hundreds of chefs and industry professionals. Not only has he been a fantastic ambassador as a candidate but he has generously offered to help the next candidate in his or her preparation.

"We must also look back at what we have achieved, the number of supporters increased by at least 100 per cent from 2009 to 2011, funding increased from a few hundred pounds to more than £60,000 and we've secured significant media interest - which is key to raising awareness and hopefully more funds. We need to continue to build on these foundations to ensure that we can give future candidates the support and insight that they need to perform successfully in this spectacular contest."

Denmark's Rasmus Kofoed  has won the prestigious Bocuse d'Or competition in Lyon, with UK representative Simon Hulstone finishing in 13th place out of a total of 24 competing nations.

As the winner of the most high profile international culinary contest, Rasmus has won €20,000 (£16,700) in prize money. He previously finished third and second in the Bocuse d'Or in 2005 and 2007 respectively.

Sweden's Tommy Myllymaki came in second place, with Gunnar Hvarnes of Norway in third.

Hulstone, head chef at the Michelin-starred Elephant restaurant in Torquay, Devon, has now represented the UK twice in the biennial contest and said he will now retire from the competition.  

The special prize for the best fish platter went to Switzerland, with France winning the special prize for the best meat dish.

Hulstone worked together with Team UK commis chef Jordan Bailey, sous chef at the Elephant, and a commis supplied by the competition's organisers, and was looked on by team manager Nick Vadis, UK executive chef at Compass Group.

The team worked solidly for five-and-a-half hours preparing, cooking and serving to the international judging panel two silver flats, one based on Scottish seafood and the other on Scottish lamb, each serving 14 people.

Hulstone's fish course comprised dashi-poached Scottish monkfish loin with wild fennel pollen; crab "bombe"; langoustine and caviar "buttons"; lemon-infused salsify with smoked salmon; "medusa" - monkfish liver and crispy shirazu; royale of Jerusalem artichoke, truffle and pea; verjus and spring onion butter; and trawlerman's pie.

His meat course was loin of Scotland's finest lamb with sweetbreads; "spiral" of shoulder; textures of beetroot; couscous "domino" with cucumber ketchup and watermelon; charlotte of asparagus and pea, foie gras bon bon; Madeira jus; and shepherd's pie.

The team could not precut any ingredients, although they were allowed to pre-peel garlic, portion oil, salt, flour and other ingredients, and bring stocks made in advance. 

Simon Hulstone, head chef at the Michelin-starred Elephant in Torquay, Devon, will today compete in the Bocuse d'Or, the most high profile international culinary competition held in Lyon, France.

Hulstone, who is representing the UK for the second time in the biennial contest, will be up against 23 other countries - each competing for the prestigious title and €20,000 (£16,700) in prize money.

Hulstone will be working today together with Team UK commis chef Jordan Bailey, sous chef at the Elephant, and a commis supplied by the competition's organisers, and looked on by team manager Nick Vadis, UK executive chef at Compass Group.

The team will work solidly for five-and-a-half hours preparing, cooking and serving to the international judging panel two silver flats, one based on Scottish seafood including monkfish, crab and langoustine and the other on Scottish lamb, each with three garnishes. The teams' two elaborate presentations must serve 14 people. No ingredients may be pre-cut, although teams are allowed to pre-peel garlic, portion oil, salt, flour and other ingredients, and bring stocks made in advance.

The judging panel will include high profile chefs such as Thomas Keller, representing the USA, Norwegian chef Gier Skeie, who won the Bocuse d'Or in 2009, and Academy of Culinary Arts president Brian Turner for the UK.

A group of more than 150 British supporters will be in the crowd at Lyon to cheer for Hulstone, who is hoping to finish in the top three at the Bocuse d'Or. He placed in fourth position and won best meat dish at the European final of the competition, which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, last June.

View our picture gallery of the Bocuse d'Or in Lyon here.

 

The 20 countries competing in next year's World Pastry Cup have been revealed, with a team representing the UK taking part for the first time in eight years.

The prestigious biennial competition, which is known as La Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie, will take place in Lyon on 23 and 24 January. It will see 20 countries from around the world compete for the title, each comprising a pastry chef, a chocolate specialist and an ice cream maker.

Each team will have 10 hours to prepare and present a buffet which must include three chocolate desserts; three frozen fruit desserts; an ice sculpture; a chocolate sculpture; a sculpture made from drawn sugar and a dessert on a plate.

Benoit Blin, executive pastry chef at Raymond Blanc's two-Michelin-starred Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Oxfordshire, has been selected as the president of the British team. He will be joined by Javier Mercado and Chris Loder, pastry lecturers at Westminster Kingsway College, and Johannes Bonin, pastry chef at the Connaught Hotel.

It is the first time that a UK team is taking part in the World Pastry Cup since 2003 and only the third time the country is represented since its inception in 1989.

"The 2011 Pastry World Cup in Lyon is an exciting and huge opportunity for the UK hospitality industry to demonstrate that the UK pastry and dessert skill is a force to be reckoned with," said Blin.

"The UK pastry team must and will inspire a new generation of young chefs in the country, so let's give them all our support during their preparations."

The 20 competing countries are:

Belgium
South Korea
United States
Italy
Japan
Netherlands 
Spain 
Russia
United Kingdom
Tunisia
Morocco
Singapore
Taiwan
Malaysia
China 
Mexico
Brazil
Argentine
Colombia
Uruguay

By the power of text messaging (competitors have been under lock and key), Guide Girl can bring you, hot off the press, news that Simon Hulstone and team GB has come 10th in the Bocuse d'Or 2009 competition in Lyon.

Norway claimed first place, then Sweden and France came third. Simon said that despite getting high points all the big teams came out on top, but team GB was commended on the food.

When asked if he'd do it again, he said, "ask me again next week  "...

There will be more details of the competition and its winners soon, so keep coming back!

Read more at Caterersearch.com >>

I'm back at the Bocuse d'Or 2009 for the second and final day of the competition. Today, the remaining 12 countries are cooking including the previous winner France, Norway, Singapore, Spain, the USA and Canada whose fans are even outdoing the Swiss delegation's performance yesterday in terms of noise levels.

I managed to sneak back stage after the competition last night and caught up with German chef Eyck Zimmer, who represented the UK at the Bocuse d'Or in 2003 and 2005. He let me in on a bit of scandal from the 2007 competition - in which André Garrett from Galvin at Windows represented the UK.

Apparently the German team claimed to have caught the French team on camera cheating in the competition. After France went on to win the 2007 Bocuse d'Or, Germany pulled out of this year's contest in protest. Mein Gott!

Being behind stage was quite an experience with heavyweights including Paul Bocuse himself, Alain Ducasse, Anne Sophie Pic, Daniel Boulud and Thomas Keller hanging out. I must admit, I was just a little star-struck! 

After the competition ended last night, we went to one of Paul Bocuse's brasseries for dinner, which was phenomenal. While just a casual restaurant, the standards of both the food and service were comparable with any one-Michelin-starred restaurant I've been to in the UK. There's no denying it - the French know what they're doing when it comes to hospitality and Monsieur Bocuse it right at the forefront of his game. 

Back at the Bocuse d'Or today, I had a quick chat with the UK judge Brian Turner. He said he was "chuffed to bits" with Simon Hulstone's performance yesterday. "Simon made himself proud," he enthused.

But he warned that it's no mean feat to make it onto the podium. "It's a tough game and it'll taker a hell of a lot to get into the top three," he said. "I'm hoping Simon will win best beef dish. It'll be an amazing achievement for him and the UK, particularly since we've got Aberdeen Angus beef on the menu."

The winner will be announced at 6pm tonight after which we're all heading to Lyon's Centre de congrès for the 2009 Bocuse d'Or Gala Dinner. I'll be back tomorrow with news on the winner and all the gossip from the night.