Seoul chefs come out tops

The young chefs from Grand Intercontinental, Seoul, South Korea, who staved off teams of superchefs from all over the world to take home the gold at the MLA Black Box 4th Global Grand Final. The team comprised team leader Paul Schenk, director of kitchens at Intercontinental Hotels Seoul, chef Bok JongDae, Kim YooShik, Lim HoTaek, and one of the few ladies in the competition, pasty chef Choi JinBok.

It was the Grand Intercontinental Seoul's first time in the global finals. “I think what impressed judges the most about our entry was the consistency, presentation and the taste of course," said a beaming Schenk, struggling for superlatives to describe the experience.

“It was an amazing experience, the best thing we have ever experienced. It is the greatest thing to have ever happened to us. In terms of our industry, it is the greatest team cooking event in the world and we won, we won!"

Volatile

The high pressure challenge and volatile chefs made for quite a few flamboyant scenes from the minute the black box was unveiled at the Madinat Jumeirah ballroom, the venue for the competition.

Just like their winning recipes, the teams snapped, crackled and eventually came together in the one hour they had to produce a four-course menu using the ingredients within the box.

Inside the box were dozens of products: the finest Australian beef and lamb, Norwegian halibut and salmon, French Valrhona chocolate, macadamia nuts, mangoes and other more prosaic produce such as asparagus, carrots, mushrooms and celery. Every single ingredient in the box had to be utilised by the chefs.
gala dinner

After submitting their menus, the chefs then went to work preparing the menus for the judges and 600 guests at the gala dinner on Thursday night.

Organised by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), the MLA Black Box Culinary Challenge has been running for 12 years. The Dubai event was the fourth grand final in the Challenge's history. There have been over 70 Black Box events held since 1996 involving more than 3,000 young chefs from 19 countries.

Originally only a competition for South Asia's young chefs, the MLA Black Box Culinary Challenge has experienced phenomenal growth and now includes teams from the Middle East, Africa, Asia and North America.