I have recently returned from a very productive meeting with the Board, held in Frankfurt, Germany. As we look to the exciting year ahead, I wanted to provide you with an update on the many important decisions we made and the initiatives we planned in advance.

DUBAI CONGRESS:
The Emirates Culinary Guild continues to do an excellent job in preparing for the 2008 WACS Congress. The events, speakers and exhibitors will provide a terrific opportunity to learn about the latest trends, view exciting competitions and network with colleagues. The backdrop of Dubai is a spectacular location for both you and your family to enjoy. For the latest information, visit http://www.wacs2008.com

GLOBAL CHEFS’CHALLENGE:
The regional competitions have all been completed for the first ever Global Chefs Challenge to be held during the Congress. The success of this competition was made possible due to the generous support of Unilever Foodsolutions, which signed on as the Platinum Sponsor of the Global Chefs Final. The competitions, as you can imagine, were impressive, and the race for the final "Global Chef" will be an exciting event. I would like to congratulate the respective Continental Directors, the Organizing Committees, the Culinary Committee, the judges and, of course, the finalists. Competing at the Congress will be Chefs from the United States, South Africa, Norway, The Netherlands, Cyprus, Australia and Singapore (The first place competitor from Japan will be unable to compete at the Congress due to illness). Learn more about the regional events by visiting http://wacs2000.org/menu.php?id=7

WOMEN IN WACS:
We are pleased to have the opportunity to offer travel stipends for female Chefs in order to attend the Congress as well as the Women in WACS forum. This opportunity was made possible by the support of Unilever Foodsolutions. We are extending the deadline for submission, so please feel free to pass the application to your membership. It can be found at http://www.wacs2000.org/menu.php?id=6

WACS CENTRAL OFFICE:
For years now, we have operated WACS without the support of a central office. As the Presidium rotated, so did the office location. One of the commitments this Presidium made was the realization of a central office. I am pleased to report that we have established a central office and will provide additional details at the upcoming Congress. Through the generous support of Unilever Foodsolutions, we now have seed money which will be used to get an office up and running. We reviewed several proposals and have selected Singapore as the site based upon the proposal of Peter Knipp Holdings, Ltd. I am looking forward to the many benefits, including, but not limited to, improved communications, fundraising and coordination that a central office will bring to WACS. With this initiative in place, we will have the ability to effectively implement our Educational Programs, such as Master Chef Certification, Train-The-Trainer and certification programs. In addition, our world-wide communication efforts will be more easily managed, resulting in stronger communication for all members and sustained growth of WACS in all aspects. This news is indeed a great way to end 2007.

I wish you and your family a happy and healthy New Year.

Ferdinand Metz

The Emirates Culinary Guild continues to do an excellent job in preparing for the 2008 WACS Congress. The events, speakers and exhibitors will provide a terrific opportunity to learn about the latest trends, view exciting competitions and network with colleagues.

The backdrop of Dubai is a spectacular location for both you and your family to enjoy. With legendary Arabic hospitality, incredible surroundings, duty-free shopping and spectacular accommodations and dining available, Dubai will prove to be a memorable location and a sight to see. For the latest information, visit http://www.wacs2008.com

Sweden, the double Culinary Olympic champions, enjoyed the sweet taste of Valentine’s Day success as they beat the hosts Wales and Italy to claim the Battle for the Dragon Trophy last night (Thursday).

The Swedish national team pictured with the Battle for the Dragon trophy

The talented Swedish chefs just pipped the Welsh National Culinary Team, the defending champions, after an exciting three-day contest at the hugely successful Welsh International Culinary Championships at Coleg Llandrillo Cymru, Rhos on Sea, Colwyn Bay.

The Welsh team (from left) Nick Davies, Wayne Roberts, Graham Tinsley, David Kelman, Toby Beevers, Gennaro Adaggio and Michael Bates

The Italian team

An experienced international panel of judges awarded silver medals to both Sweden and Wales but the visitors collected more points to win the trophy. Italy collected a bronze medal.

The contest, sponsored by the Welsh Assembly Government and Hybu Cig Cymru, was the highlight of the championships, which ended last night with a presentation ceremony at The Imperial Hotel, Llandudno.

The trophies were presented by Elin Jones, the Welsh Assembly Government’s Rural Affairs Minister, who described the Battle for the Dragon contest and Welsh International Culinary Championships as "a wonderful showcase for Welsh food".

"The Welsh Assembly Government is proud to provide funding to the Welsh Culinary Association for the work it tirelessly carries out to promote Welsh food around the world," she said.

Sweden rarely enter competitions other than the two biggest ones in culinary programme, the Culinary Olympics and Culinary World Cup. As the team is preparing for the defence of its Olympic crown in Germany in October, it accepted an invitation to travel to Wales to take on the home nation and Italy, who are ranked seventh and 10th in the world respectively.

The Welsh team opened the competition on Tuesday followed by Italy on Wednesday and Sweden yesterday. Each team was given three hours to produce a mouthwatering three-course meal for 90 people using quality Welsh ingredients in their dishes.

Welsh Culinary Association chairman Peter Jackson, who chaired of the judging panel, said: "It has been great to welcome the double Culinary Olympic champions Sweden and Italy to Wales for this year’s championships, which have been fabulous.

"We have learnt so much from these teams and they have thoroughly enjoyed their visit. The Welsh chefs should be proud of their performance, which provides a solid foundation in the run up to the Culinary Olympics."

Krister Dahl, Sweden’s captain, said the team was delighted to win the competition and thanked Mr Jackson for his organisation and supplying all the ingredients for the chefs.

"The competition was good and we had to work very hard to win," he added. "The ingredients were very good and the Welsh Beef was lovely.

"Wales is a very beautiful country but we did not see much of it. Maybe we will return in two years and stay for more days."

The Welsh team was manager Graham Tinsley, co-owner of the Castle Hotel, Conwy and Nant Hall, Prestatyn, captain, Wayne Roberts, head chef at The Imperial Hotel, Llandudno, vice captain, Nick Davies, of Cambrian Training Company, Welshpool, David Kelman, of Lower Slaughter Manor, Stow-on-the-Wold, Mike Bates, executive chef at St David’s Hotel and Spa, Cardiff, Toby Beevers, of Inventive Leisure, Ashton-under-Lyne and Gennaro Adaggio of La Dolce Vita, Shrewsbury.

The Welsh National Culinary Team is sponsored by the Welsh Assembly Government, C&C Catering Equipment Ltd, Brakes, Unilever Foodsolutions UK, Catering Engineers (N.W.) Ltd, Hybu Cig Cymru/ Meat Promotion Wales, Gourmet Classic Ltd, Villeroy and Boch, Friedr. Dick, Germany, Snowdonia Cheese Company and Metcalfe Catering.


To view more pictures from the contest click here

It is with pleasure that the New Zealand Chefs Association (NZCA) announces the appointment of Canterbury Region Executive Member and New Zealand Culinary Team CoachManager Neil MacInnes as a World Association of Chefs’ Societies (WACS) International Culinary Competitions Judge

Neil, who is program coordinator at the School of Food and Hospitality at Christchurch Polytech and Institute of Technology, has recently been confirmed by the WACS Culinary Committee as the newest International Culinary Competitions Judge.

Neil will be eligible to now judge at some of the world’s leading culinary competitions and through this opportunity will be able to pass on his experiences and skills to local, regional and national culinary judges here in New Zealand.

International Competitions that Neil is now eligible to judge in include.

The American Culinary Classic - Chicago,
The Culinary World Cup - Luxembourg,
Basel - Switzerland
ScotHot - Scotland
Food & Hotel Asia - Singapore
Battle of the Lion at The Welsh International Salon Culinaire

Neil is no stranger to these types of competitions, having held the position of coach eam manager of New Zealand’s international representative culinary team whom have competed in some of these very competitions during the past 5 years.

New Zealand Culinary Team Business Manager and NZCA Vice-President Gary Miller said of Neil’s achievement “The team are wrapped with Neil’s appointment, it goes to show that hard work does pay off. This is a goal that we within the team set sometime ago and are pleased with and proud of Neil’s appointment”. Gary also goes on to say, “This will bring a whole new level of understanding of the international judging process to the team and will help greatly with the team’s future development”.

On December 4, 2007, top chefs in Hong Kong and food industry leaders gathered in a special event to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Knorr in Hong Kong. The night-long event turned out to be a memorable night for everyone who participated.

One of the highlights of the event was the launch of the cookbook entitled “A Blend of Western Know-how and Eastern Mastery”. 50 famous chefs, 25 each from both Chinese and Western cuisines, were brought together to share their favourite good food recipes.

It is no easy job to look for the top chefs in Hong Kong. Thanks to The Hong Kong Chefs Association and Hong Kong Chinese Chefs Association for helping us invite the chefs. Although some were limited by company policies, we had the full support from chefs who were eager to contribute in this meaningful project.

The 50 participating chefs enjoyed the limelight very much. A professional photographer was hired to take shots of the 50 signature dishes and 50 chef portraits. Most of the chefs’ shots were taken inside the kitchen portraying their day-to-day activities. All those shots were so candid that even the chefs loved them. We chose the best shot to be featured in the cook book, and made a personalized photo album for each of the 50 chefs as a remembrance for the wonderful experience they had.

Each cookbook is sold at 380 HKD. Net proceeds from the cookbook sale deducting printing expenses will be donated to Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children. The kids from the charitable organization had a culinary theme performance during the gala dinner.

In order to raise funds for charity, we had an auction during the gala dinner. The auction was well-received by the guests. Three successful bidders were able to bid three signed copies of cookbooks with the highest bid of 23,000 HKD.

To end the night in a memorable way, celebrity Eliza Chen performed a series of songs and interacted with the chefs. Guests were awed as Western chefs danced playfully with Eliza and Chinese chefs sang along with her.


Source: HKCA Newsflash February 11, 2008
To read more articles from HKCA Newsflash, click here

The four finalists (from left) Carl Hammett, Neil Roberts, Ben James and Gerwyn Llyr Williams.

The coveted title of National Chef of Wales and a £2,000 cash prize are at stake as four talented chefs prepare for a cook-off final next week.

The showpiece final at the Welsh International Culinary Championships at Coleg Llandrillo Cymru, Rhos on Sea on Tuesday, February 12 will be contested by Carl Hammett, 36, sous chef at The Chandlery, Newport, Ben James, 24, chef de parti at the Copthorne Hotel, Cardiff, Neil Roberts, 43, from The Waggon and Horses, Newtown and Gerwyn Llyr Williams, 22, chef de parti at Hotel Maes-y-Neuadd, Talsarnau, Harlech.

Hammett and Roberts are the regional chef of the year champions for South and Mid Wales respectively.

In the final, the four chefs will face the ultimate test of their skills when have to devise and cook a four course menu from a mystery black box of ingredients, which they will see only the night before the contest. The ingredients will include some True Taste of Wales award winning products.

The biannual National Chef of the Year contest is organised by the Welsh Culinary Association (WCA) and sponsored jointly by the Welsh Assembly Government and Hybu Cig Cymru / Meat Promotion Wales.

The winning chef will be asked to reproduce his menu for 120 guests at a presentation dinner to be held at The Imperial Hotel, Llandudno on May 1.

Dear All,

Calling all culinary artist! Chefs Association of Malaysia, Penang Chapter once again like to invite you and your esteem team to come and challenge your culinary skill with the chefs from around the globe.

Please find attached the rule book for your perusal.
Please do not hesitate to pass on and if you have any quiries, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Best Culinary Regards
Peter Chan PJM
6012-4733432


**To download the Competition Rulebook click here

Sponsored by the Norwegian Seafood Export Council (NSEC) and organized by the Association of Home Economists Singapore (AHES), the Get Set & Go Fish! Campaign featuring Norwegian Salmon will be launched on 14 March 2008 by the Norwegian Ambassador H.E. Ms Janne Julsrud. Running from March 14 to August 31 2008, the campaign aims to create awareness of healthy eating by promoting the nutritional value and health benefits of Norwegian Salmon among Singaporean secondary school students.

Supported by the Health Promotion Board and the Singapore Chefs Association, there will be activities such as training program, nutrition talks and cooking demonstrations by home economics teachers. Other exciting activities include in-house school cooking competitions and a national cooking competition for home economics students.

Educational materials will also be provided to reach out to parents on healthy eating habits with salmon. Celebrity Chef Jimmy Chok has created unique recipes for this program and will demonstrate them during the launch. He will also be making a trip to five secondary schools to conduct hands-on classes for students to give them an opportunity to touch, prepare and taste salmon.

Australia’s cosmopolitan city of Melbourne is living it up once again with its annual food and wine festival, promising to be better than last year and definitely titillate all palates. Starting from 22 February and ends on 8 March, this festival will have revelers spoilt for choice with 220 different food and wine events over a period of 16 days.

Annually, this festival attracts food and wine experts from across the world, including world-renown chefs and winemakers, growers, purveyors, authors, food and wine commentators and critics to present alongside some of Australia’s best. Presented by newspaper The Age, this event sets to be considered as one of the biggest not just in Australia but also the world.

Interesting events include learning the secrets of famous foodies at Langham Melbourne MasterClass, celebrate our nation’s favourite pastime with Australia’s top chefs at Sizzle! The Great Aussie BBQ, join 1,000 other diners at the World’s Longest Lunch, browse Victoria’s most delicious produce at the Slow Food Marketplace or explore Victoria’s picturesque locations at one of the Festival’s regional events.

For information and updates go to http://www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au/

Experts are speculating that cheap wines may soon disappear due to poor harvests and rising costs. The droughts in Australia and the damp summer in Europe have both contributed to this problem that left wine importers short in supply. Besides the rising cost in producing wine, bottling too isn’t left untouched. The increasing oil prices are affecting the cost of the bottle and even prices of glass, corks and packaging and transporting wine have gone way up.

But however, critics are saying that this problem may actually be a blessing. Jonathan Ray called the bad news a wake up call to the miserly consumer who usually opts for quantity instead of quality.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Hong Kong is crossing their fingers hoping that taxes for beers and wines with the exception of spirits to be completely removed on 27 February. This will make Hong Kong to probably become the first trade centre of wines and beers at local. This decision was agreed at the end of February last year where the Hong Kong government decided to do so in order to promote economic activities and employment as well as developing Hong Kong into the centre of distribution, trade and logistics.

Currently, Hong Kong’s wine tax is higher than that of nearby districts. By removing taxes, it will definitely become the trade centre of wine and it is a huge step up from the big tax reduction it had to 40 percent last year. Its turnover will increase HK $5 billion which will be much more than the annual revenue of wine plus customers will benefit from it.

Source: www.wines-info.com

The multibillion-pound curry industry in Britian is facing ruin because of a crippling shortage of worker in the kitchen fuelled by harsh immigration rules that favour East Europeans over South Asians, according to a leading immigration body. Keith Best, chief executive of the Immigration Advisory Service says, "Despite many meetings with the Immigration Minister who states that he understands the plight of this important industry to the UK, nothing is being done to improve the situation,"

Last weekend’s 143 million-pound beef recall -- the largest in U.S. history -- was initiated not simply because cattle that couldn’t walk made it into the US food supply, but because they weren’t reinspected after becoming immobile.

Cattle that have lost the ability to walk can still be slaughtered for food if they are reinspected after falling. Since 2004, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has required that cattle be able to walk to slaughter after an inspection by a USDA veterinarian -- largely as a precaution against bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. If the animal goes down after a veterinarian’s pre-death inspection, which consists of observing the animals "at rest and in motion," veterinarians must reinspect the animal before it can enter the food supply, according to a USDA spokesman. This rule was put in place when the first cow with mad cow disease was found in Washington state at the end of 2003.

More: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/02/20/downer.cattle/index.html?eref=edition_us

Source: CNN.com, By Miriam Falco

By now, everyone knows of China’s unrelenting northern winters and the ferocity by which nature has left man stranded in its grasp, and thr grounds frigid with cold barreness.

Yet for some farms in rural Changpin, north of Beijing, their greenhouses are surprisingly filled with vegetables, including pumpkins, tomatoes and peppers. Minimal chemicals are used, and the farms even employ technologies such as an electronic tagging system to track the produce, and on-site testing to ensure that product quality remains at its highest.

At a time where the world looks onto China for the Olympic games, the last thing the country wants is to endure an Olympic-sized food poisoning scandal. Small wonder then, that China has begun to engage in rigorous selection processes, before settling on several companies and specially chosen farms as the official Olympic suppliers. "The Chinese government is confident about food safety", seems to be the message that is repeated over and over again.

But with frequent media reports of food-related problems in China, many foreigners are expressed concern regarding Chinese food products. "I think this is the number one issue facing our (Olympic) teams," said Mike Tancred, media director for the Australian Olympic Committee, according to the BBC, and the committee has already advised their athletes on what to eat, and what not to eat.

Source: BBC News

Imagine relaxing amidst tropical luxury in a US$2,000-a-night suite with plunge pools at the Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica. Instead of being serenaded by gentle warbles of tropical songbirds, the roaring howls of a pack of howler monkeys greet you as they swing energetically from rosewood tree to rosewood tree just outside your suite. Or compete with other Rolex-toting strollers and herds of tan cattle as both man and beast amble peacefully down a newly paved road.

Guanacaste Province, a formerly impoverished remote region in north-western Costa Rica, is just one of the many regions in the Pacific that are bidding to be the next luxury hotspot, as well-heeled travellers begin to seek alternative eco-luxurious experiences. With Costa Rica’s reputation as a peaceful eco-destination, hotel chains are keen to follow and emulate the success of four-year-old Four Seasons Costa Rica, which has an impressive full capacity throughout the year even though the most affordable room rates can cost up to $US 1,000 per day.

"A lot of people with a lot of money are trying to put money here," says tour guide José Agüero González, according to ehotelier.com, who has moved to this area because of the attractiveness of the burgeoning tourism industry.

Other upcoming hotels to be expected include the Mandarin Oriental, Costa Rica in 2009, and the Rosewood Hotels & Resorts by the end of 2010.

Source: ehotelier.com