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Hans Bueschkens World Championship
Junior Chefs Challenge
Presidents Message
Dear Young Chefs,
In 2008, the World Association of Chefs Societies (WACS) turned 80 years old. Yet, it is only recently that there has been a shift in focus to include in our activities and programs, something for the Young Junior Chefs.
To be honest, it took a long time for our organisation to recognise that we had an obligation to the junior embers to help them grow into active and responsible senior members if we wished this organisation to be around for the next hundred years.
Chef Hans Bueschkens was one of the first WACS President (1981-1988) to really do something to get the Junior Chefs involved. This is why his name is still honoured today through the Hans Bueschkens Challenge.
Chef Bueschkens knew that it is by us sharing resources such as experience, information and confidence that we, the senior chefs, can make possible the development of all members and guarantee the continued legacy of our organisation.
In this same spirit, the WACS Board of today has decided to renew its efforts into the Junior programs by nominating two prominent junior members to be part of its discussions for the years to come. Their role is to advise the board on Junior issues and matters and report on Junior activities throughout the world. We hope that this initiative will help us understand what your needs and desires are.
We know today that for our Juniors to feel a part of WACS, they must be active participants in all aspects of our programs. You are the future of this organisation, and we want you to show us what you need to grow.
With Culinary Regards,
Gissur Gudmundsson
WACS President
History
Hans J. Bueschkens, was President of WACS from 1980 to 1988. Born in Cologne in Germany in 1931, he began his career at the age of 14 as an apprentice. At the age of 20, he left Germany to emigrate to Canada and worked as chef on a passenger liner. Later, he became active in the Canadian Federation of Chefs de Cuisine (CFCC). He headed the first official CFCC Team Canada at the 1972 Culinary Olympics in Frankfurt, Germany, which came up with a highly-respected fourth place. In 1976 Canada placed second behind the Swiss.
In 1980 Bueschkens was elected President of WACS and was reelected in 1984 to a second four year term, the first consecutive reelection in the history of WACS. When he assumed the presidency it represented about 210,000 members in 23 countries and grew to more than 1.8 million members in 51 countries. Bueschkens declared as his primary goals: the creation of a multi-continent WACS as a truly “world-wide” society by attracting more countries as members; and to create programs to interest “youth” by bringing “junior chefs” into WACS activities. Thus, he played a key role in the “Taste of Canada” World Student Chefs Olympics as well as the World Junior Chefs Challenge held in South Africa, the WACS-endorsed World Junior Grand Prix 2003 and – last but not least – the Hans Bueschkens Junior Chefs Challenge, first hosted in Kyoto, Japan in 1992 and continued in Dublin, Ireland in 2004, Auckland, New Zealand in 2006 and in Dubai in 2008.
Well deserved honours and accolades have followed Bueschkens the greater part of his life. Bueschkens died suddenly of a heart attack in Basel, Switzerland on September 8, 1996.
We will remember him as a great chef and a man with great passion and commitment..
Junior Chefs Challenge Brochure [ pdf | download ]
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