This year the Jeunes Chefs Rôtisseurs Competition had a relatively “last minute” change of venue from Perth to Frankfurt where it was last hosted in 2007.

It takes a lot of work and organization to put on a world class competition in the normal period of time but the Bailliage of Germany under the direction of Bailli Délégué Klaus Tritschler achieved a near impossible task in just a matter of months.

The seven female and fourteen male competitors came from twenty-one National Bailliages: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Cook Islands, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and the USA. The Cook Islands and Netherlands were first time participants.

The highlights of the week included a tour given by Boris Maskow of the Lufthansa airline production kitchen which produces over 120,000 meals each day; a Vitamix demonstration from Jens Jorra; a Pommery Champagne tasting at Main Tower led by Boris Maskow; a visit to Hassia Springwater hosted by Michael Hock.

We are grateful to these sponsors for providing such unique experiences to our young chefs. In addition all competitors received an engraved silver-plated gourmet spoon and money clip provided by Robbe & Berking.

This year’s primary protein was revealed two months in advance to the competitors while the rest of the black box was revealed to the contestants when each group of chefs entered the menu writing room. The black box consisted of a whole sole, a whole trout, lamb steak and rack, artichoke, pea pods and mango.

Competitors had to use at least 50% of these items and could complement them from a large array of non-mandatory items. The competition allows the young chefs 30 minutes to write their menu, 3½ hours to their first course followed by 15 minutes until their main and a final 15 minutes to their dessert.

Once the marks by the kitchen and tasting judges had been totalled, the result was the First Place medal for Amelia from the Bailliage of Malaysia, the Runner-up medal for Michel Booijink from the Netherlands and the Third Place medal for Australia’s Christopher Malone.

Congratulations are also due to competition winner Amelia Ng for achieving the highest marks in the kitchen for which she received the Wüsthof Award of a set of three knives.

Additional prizes were a wristwatch from Wempe for the winner, a sterling silver ball-point pen by Graf-von-Faber Castell for the Runner up and a pair of silver-plated champagne flutes from Robbe & Berking for Third Place.

Competitions like this rely on the expertise and unbiased fairness of both the Kitchen Judges and the Tasting judges. Thank you to these members who attended from all corners of the world.

Last but certainly not least, for their ongoing generous contributions to the competition we are very grateful to our perpetual sponsors, Le Cordon Bleu Paris represented in person by Chef Eric Briffard, Wüsthof Manufacturing (Germany) represented by Harald Wüsthof, and Chef’s-Hat Canada.

Looking ahead now, we will celebrate the 42nd Concours International des Jeunes Chefs Rôtisseurs in Taiwan on September 7, 2018.

Lois Gilbert, Bailli Honoraire
Member, International Jeunes Chefs Rôtisseurs Competition Committee