Fourth Day Cold Table Displays Not Up To Par

Judges, chefs and visitors alike have expressed disappointment over the standard of cold table displays from the national, regional, junior and military teams showcasing their work today. Although the themes are unique and some even quite creative, the presented dishes are clearly not perfect, clean, or exciting enough to win over fans.

"Its just not up to what was presented before, especially two days ago," expressed judge Tony Khoo from Singapore with a frown. Many others concur with him, but it will be up to the respective cold table judges to unveil just how well, or poorly the tables fare at the end of today. From the looks of it, the pastry art competitors will do slightly better. Watch the medal tallies!

The Low Down on Pastry Judging

We caught up with pastry judge John Hui from Las Vegas, USA to find out what it is that makes or breaks a team's chance at a gold medal in the pastry competition:

"Alot of the finer works that I see from some of the top countries gets scored well because the attention to detail is there - fine intricate work, and everything's very petite. That's what's making the difference between the leaders and the rest of them."

Even with the larger single sculptures, Hui shared that judges are not really looking at the shape or size of it, but rather the craftsmanship in the detail that's on it. "The actual shape of the sculpture is just balance work. Once its balanced, that's where you add your skill into it. Judges look for at least five different variations of skill in say, chocolate pieces, or sugar work (e.g. Blown sugar, poured sugar, etc. etc.) We grade them on how they excecute each one of these skills.


Only Once You Get There...

Cold Display teams can pratice for years on their concept but what they cannot do is anticipate how well organised or impressive their competitors are going to be. You could labour with love over a table that you and your countrymen think is absolutely awesome, and still be blown away by how good other teams can be at an event such as the Culinary Olympics. The judges too, have no way of knowing what to expect, and while some judges were not too happy over today's peformances, others have positive comments to offer:

"What comes as a pleasent surprise to me is the increasing standards of the food presented by Slovenia and Italy," testified Naitonal Team Cateory B judge Milan Sahanek from the Czech Republic. The quality and professionalism of their work is getting much better as compared with previous competitions. They were earning diplomas and bronzes before, but now their improvement is really visible.
However I can also see that some other national teams have stagnated in their quality of presentation.

Why Winning Isn't Always Everything

Talented baker and pastry artist Omaro Gallucci from Great Britain created a huge 6-foot sculpture of a pastry cook today and also participated in the community catering category of the Culinary Olympics, producing 6 dishes of "everyday food" with side orders as well as a 3-course menu of cooked-hot-served-cold food. "I hope I do well but I know there's top work here at the Olympics, with world-class judges scoring the food so you know its a fair competition. Even if you don't get high medals, at the end of the day you're all still chefs, still colleagues. No point picking on the guy who did better than you," he shared.

Happy International Chefs Day!!

Today marked the inaugural launch of International Chefs Day around the world. Here in Erfurt, organisers of the Culinary Olympics as well as WACS honourary ambassador Bill Gallagher took an hour or so after the competition was officially closed at 5pm to introduce the concept to all chefs, media and various other culinary supporters. The small presentation at Hall 1 featured photographs from events that had taken place not longer than 16 hours before, in various cities around the world.

News and pictures arrived by email from the South African Chefs Association, which had just concluded a charity effort four hours prior. Just about 12 hours before that, the New Zealand Chefs Association had raised NZD $30,000 for charity. The action in India was widespread, ranging from a culinary competition in Delhi, a charity event in Chennai and various culinary seminars across Western Indiai to a competition that awarded medals for the catering college that could come up with the best International Chefs Day Programme in South India. In Singapore, the combined work of three teams of chefs cooking for children's charities broke the record for news coverage on chefs in the island-state.

"Today we fed approximately 20,000 children around the world," shared Gallagher with a stunned crowd (few of whom had truly assimilated the idea when it was first pitched and accepted by the world body of chefs in March this year). But judging by the news still streaming in from various countries, those who had caught on early have brought the awareness of International Chefs Day to soaring heights today, and have much to be proud of indeed.

The true camaraderie between chefs that was observed at this ceremony only served to animate the 'International' flavour of 20th October. "I hope to see many more countries marked on this map next year," said Gallagher in closing, waving his hand across the projected world map which was dotted with stars where activity had taken place today. "Go and use your profession to promote humanity around the world."

The New Argentinian Website

The chefs in Argentina also chose this auspicious day to launch their brand new association website. Surf on by for a read of what's happening in their corner of the globe! www.centrococineros.com.ar