S.Pellegrino Young Chef 4th Edition Bucharest Launch

To kick off the 4th edition of the most exciting talent search in the world, S.Pellegrino held its first S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2019-2020 event in Bucharest with some of the most influential and renowned members of the gastronomy community. The launch event held on the 7th of February, was a celebration of true culinary talent and the perfect opportunity for three young chefs that participated in the competition in the past years to demonstrate their culinary skills to the discerning audience, composed of aspiring chefs, cooking school representatives, other chefs and restaurant owners, bloggers and journalists.

Providing the guests a full immersion experience in the wondrous world of culinary talent, the three chefs Mojmir Marko Siftar (2017-2018, Semi-Finalist East Europe), Rodrigo Sandor (2016, Finalist East Europe), Alessandro Rapisarda (S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2016, Finalist Italy) each created a dish for the menu of the evening aptly titled the “Tasting Experience”.

Rapisarda took on the starter, a risotto alla “Marinara”, a dish based on classic Italian flavours, and his Signature Dish with which he won the regional finals of S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2016. 

Sandor cooked up a main of salmon, beetroot textures, sour cherry, milk skin tulle and buttermilk. The key ingredient was beetroot, a vegetable that reminds him of his childhood growing up in Romania where his mother’s cooking frequently featured this root vegetable. Meanwhile, Siftar presented a dessert which was a ‘sweet homage to Slovenian households’, using beef soup and beef broth – a savoury-sweet composition based on a dish cooked every Sunday in almost all Slovenian homes. Expressing his excitement to be at the event, “It’s a great pleasure to be here, to see old faces and old friends, to share stories and work on a project together – we have a lot to catch up on!”

The Bucharest launch of S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2019-2020 was significant in its occasion to mark the official start of the current edition but also in its role of providing young chefs with new occasions for culinary development and forging meaningful connections in the gastronomy industry. It established the first interaction with aspiring chefs and media, introducing two chefs who, over time, have acted as true guides in the competition: chef Adrian Hadean and chef Cristina Bowerman. The two chefs took to the stage during the evening to pass on words of advice to young chefs interested in participating in the competition.

Hadean spoke of the importance of finding “happiness in the kitchen” rather than chasing fame, Michelin stars, or wealth. “This is about doing what you absolutely love to do.” He continued that it is key to find a way of cooking that represents yourself in the world, which, thanks to S.Pellegrino Young Chef, “is shrinking, by getting people together from different sides of the world, in the same environment, same table, cooking for the same amazing cooks in the world”.

S.Pellegrino’s global search for talent in gastronomy sees thousands of young culinary professionals pass through the prestigious selections process overseen by some of the best minds in the world of fine dining. The competition seeks to promote not just technical skill and creativity on a plate, but more importantly, a personal belief in relation to the use of gastronomy as a device for social change.

Read more about S.Pellegrino Young Chef and S.Pellegrino’s belief in nurturing and supporting young culinary talent, and follow all the exciting developments in the competition as they happen on S.Pellegrino’s Instagram and Facebook pages. #SPYoungChef