London Chef wins World Class Culinary Competition

by bfff.co.uk - 31/03/2010

"Chef Tobias Kaergel from the Jumeirah Carlton Tower hotel, London, has been crowned a winner of the ‘Fish Dish Challenge’ at the world renowned competition Le Salon Culinaire International de Londres."

Sponsored by the British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF), the ‘Fish Dish Challenge’ was hosted in front of a live theatre audience as part of Salon Culinaire’s schedule of competitions at Hotelympia on 1 March 2010 at the ExCeL London.

Tobias, aged 25 from London is currently a chef de partie. He fought off strong competition from nine other chefs to win the highest grade awarded in the open class. He said: “I am delighted to have won this coveted industry accolade. I wanted to enter the ‘Fish Dish Challenge’ to show that frozen fish is just as good as fresh and can be used to create mouth-watering meals. I think my chargrilled tuna steak with Mediterranean couscous and confit vegetables wowed the judges because of its beautiful presentation, superior taste and the preparation and cooking techniques I used.”

Le Salon Culinaire is an annual competition that tests the culinary skills of chefs at all levels. It comprises of over 80 classes held over five days.

Tobias prepared, cooked and presented two plated portions of his main course using tuna provided ready for use by BFFF, during the challenge.

Judges included renowned industry chefs such as Brian Turner CBE; Paul Gayler, Executive Chef, The Lanesborough, London; Kevin Viner, Viner’s Restaurant, Newquay; Eric Bruce, council member of the British Culinary Federation and chef patron, Restaurant Severn, Ironbridge, and Paul Gould, Group Executive Chef, NEC Group. Marks were awarded for working methods, culinary skills, presentation, portion size, taste, textures, flavours, timing and temperature.

Brian Young, director general of BFFF said: “The ‘Fish Dish Challenge’ presented a fantastic opportunity for Tobias to win an award that celebrates the quality of the food served at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower. We were very impressed with his final dish and hope that he enjoyed cooking with the fish we supplied as much as we enjoyed watching him!”

Peter Griffiths MBE, salon director at Hotelympia said: “We received a lot of interest from across the UK for the ‘Fish Dish Challenge’. This year’s standards were extremely high and selecting the ten finalists was very difficult. Tobias’s entry was very impressive and the final was fantastic to watch. The judges were impressed with all aspects of the dish and the skills he used to cook and present the tuna.”

Tobias was presented with a silver medal, framed certificate and commemorative award plate by Brian Young and John Retallick, compere at Salon Culinaire

More Details: http://www.bfff.co.uk/news-and-events/news/london-chef-wins-world-class-culinary-competition