Spread over two of the three halls at the Messe exhibition site, the massive cold display exhibits were a major attraction this morning as visitors strolled through the doors at 10am.

Cold Display

In hall three, the national culinary teams (consisting of one team manager, four chefs and one pastry chef) presented their gloriously assembled buffet tables that had to meet stringent requirements in three categories -

Category A: Culinary Art
2 platters of tapas, 1 cold festive platter and 6 different hors d'oeuvres

Category B - Culinary Art
1 vegetarian platter, a menu for 1 person, 4 different main courses

Caterory C - Patisserie
6 same desserts, prepared in a style suitable for serving a banquet of 200.

These delicate creations, some as small as small as a thumb, were put together within 12 hours of continous labour by the teams, who started preparation at 7pm on October 16 and had to be ready for the judges by 7am on October 17.

The Czech Republic chefs stiirred visitor's imaginations with a feminine, floral-themed setup, while the vibrance of Japan's clean, curvy creations presented on gold drapes under a 2-metre-tall oriental gateway simply took your breath away.

Reaching for even greater heights were the Icelandic team, who had shipped in four giant steel towers which were connected at the top to form a box that enclosed their table. Visible from almost every corner of the hall, this bold announcement and its accompanying ultra-chic culinary displays earned team two silver medals.

However it appears the judges were extremely satisfied with the work of the Swiss and Singaporeans, who earned two gold medals each for their cold display efforts, which were among the more simply-dressed tables in the hall.

"It's still all about the food," the judges say. While dissecting tasting portions prepared by the teams, the respective judges discussed detailed criteria such as uniformity of size, logic of food preparation and balance of flavour.

The only way to win in this competition is to prepare a table that is, quite literally, perfect.