Regional Finalists 2022-23

"‘Geumtae(sea perch)’ is a fish that reminds me of the fish market near my grandmother's house in Busan, Korea. This market, named 'Jagalchi,' is a place that demonstrated the wonderful magic of seasonal seafood caught by fishermen being transformed into delicious dishes through the medium of cooking. Furthermore, I believe that cooking with locally sourced ingredients contributes significantly to supporting small businesses and preserving the heritage of traditional local cuisine.

I sought to blend the flavors of Balinese cuisine with the memories of my roots in Tholen, a small village in the Netherlands, Zeeland province, historically renowned for its mussel culture. Now I am located in Bali, exploring, and tasting those amazing dishes and flavors. In this fusion, I weave together the essence of Bali and Tholen, capturing the essence of two worlds in one dish. It's a tribute to my journey, where the flavors of my past meet the spices of my present.

"Humans and nature are not separate; they create value together. Across Asia, time becomes value through drying, fermentation, aging, and brewing. In Japan, UMAMI captures a part of this wisdom.

By reinterpreting Ikameshi—where sea squid meets land rice—I express this time culture in a five-hour competition. Through the cycle of sea, land, and sky, the dish honors the lives sustaining it, from squid to bees, hoping it continues.

To me, UMAMI is when nature, time, and human wisdom converge."

Home Between Two Shores reflects the chef I am today and the one I hope to become. Growing up on the Mediterranean coast of Türkiye taught me that food is memory, identity, and connection. Through lamb and mussels, I bring together the land and sea that shaped me. Inspired by my grandparents, my father, and the journey that brought me back home, this dish expresses my belief that food can preserve heritage, create belonging, and bring people together around a shared table.

The Shepherd offers his healthiest lambs, either for feasts or as a sacrificial meal every year by monotheists alike, in suit of Abraham's sacrifice to god. It is tradition to use a healthy lamb that is at least a year old. I wanted to honour this abiding tradition by encompassing the subtle yet rich flavours of the animal, complimented with locally foraged seasonal vegetables. This is an exploration of a harmonious dance of textures, temperatures, and flavours.

"Aai's Fish Thali" is my tribute to the coastal food traditions of Maharashtra and the women who preserve them through generations. By elevating familiar flavors such as amti, sol kadhi, wada, kokum, and seafood into a contemporary fine-dining expression, I celebrate heritage, memory, and sustainability. The dish reflects my identity as an Indian chef while showing how traditional knowledge can inspire the future of gastronomy.

The decline of traditional inns is a real problem. These establishments tell our culinary story and are an important part of local communities. What happens when no one is left to tell that story? This is exactly where my dish begins. I want to show how beautiful simple and traditional cuisine can be—viewed from a different perspective, but without losing its core values: craftsmanship, tradition, sustainability, and great flavor from great ingredients.

The Char is a fish which lives directly in our alpine lakes in Ladis. So the main ingredient stands for my home town. The char is served in 2 different styles. Once as "Cordon Bleu" and once stained. With the dish i would like to show, that it´s possible to connect typical ingredients and tastes from my home town with tastes and ingredients from all over the world. So the whole world on "one plate".

Lamb Journey” reflects my path from Syria to Germany, shaped by memory and transformation. I reinterpret Syrian flavors inspired by my experience in a Japanese kitchen and modern techniques. I use different cuts of the animal with respect for the product, minimizing waste and giving each part a defined role through my flavors, inspired by a nose-to-tail approach. This dish carries the story of my journey through war and displacement, which reshaped my identity and made me the chef I am today.

As I grew up in Saint-Raphael, fish soup had an emblematic place in my family. My father, a fish lover, observed changes in the sea ecosystem: pollution, destruction of the biodiversity and diminution of the quantity of fish. We can’t keep our old habits by cooking without thinking about the consequences. I don’t want to forget the taste of Provence so I invented a new recipe that take into account these issues. More ethical ways can be taken to archive the emotional memory of taste.

This dish tells my story, expressing my passion for mushrooms with a skewer of mushrooms, laced with their broth and miso. The other central element is the mushroom broth, present in almost every preparation. As a homage to France, I chose: onion soup with toasted bread for a no-waste policy. The casoncelli, representing my roots, are stuffed with broth scraps, juniper-smoked ricotta and Parmesan. The final broth, when drank, cleanses the palate.

My dish resembles how climate change has affected the planet, both land and sea in the Mediterranean Regions. It’s a pescatarian dish, a combination of the French culture where I live now and the culture of Cyprus where I come from. We, as the new generation of chefs must enlighten ourselves and teach people wisely through our cooking how climate change has affected us, the nature and all the species of the planet and how to start respecting nature and her resources.

With this signature dish I intend to elevate the octopus to its maximum using all parts of it, without any waste. The place where I work, in Tavira, octopus is one of the great treasures that exists, and I intend to make it shine!

I chose this dish because it reflects my roots and the story of a cuisine built on resourcefulness and memory. The sausage represents popular tradition, while galantine, born in France and once served at royal tables, brings technique and elegance. As a Madrid native working at El Bohío, I wanted to pay tribute to Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha through a dish full of identity and emotion.

Sustainability is a word lost in intentions. We believe that to be really sustainable we can’t only focus on our restaurant, instead we also focus in our community, our Artisans and in our region. With Sustainable Construction, Regenerative Farming and Resource Management we aren’t only regenerating this land but also this community that was long lost and forgotten. We commune all of this in an innovative way to create a unique dish where we represent all of our work.

With this dish, I would like to express the concept that the replacement of animal protein with vegetable protein, allows the dish to have an equal taste, thus reducing the environmental impact, being also environmentally friendly. I hope, in this way, to succeed in approaching all food intolerances and pathologies that do not always allow the guest to feel free and involved in the free and varied choice of multiple dishes.

The First Step tells the story of a personal return. After years spent moving between kitchens, countries and experiences, I realized that growth does not always come from going further, but sometimes from stopping and rebuilding. Through the five fundamental tastes, this dish expresses comfort, tension, transformation, maturity and balance. It is a tribute to my territory, my identity and the foundations of the chef I want to become.

The dish is the result of a creative process that gives new life to discarded glass fragments, reassembled in a symphony of transparent shapes and colours. The artichoke becomes the protagonist, accompanied by fleshy elements that enhance its intensity without overpowering it, here the meat accompanies the vegetables, not the other way around. A zero-waste vision, this applies to materials as much as to food. The ferrosity of the heart accompanied by the butter mousse complete the artichoke's honesty and freshness.

This is an expression of love, honour, affection, subtlety, wisdom, passion and, of course, legacy.
The dish reminds me of my childhood, when at harvest time, mum and dad used to take me and my siblings to harvest the corn cob, remove the amero (corn husk), shuck it and grind it to make envueltos. These wraps had curd in them and we used to accompany them with sweaty fish called catfish and our beautiful Colombian sauce, hogao (sofrito).

As a proud young chef from Mexico, I capture my roots using local ingredients, intertwining cultural traditions with global techniques. Inspired by Oaxaca's rich culinary heritage, my dish showcases our identity, drawing from childhood memories. This creation reflects the vibrant flavors of Oaxaca, honoring our traditions and the essence of my hometown.

Goat is a typical product of my region Mendoza. I have eaten it since my childhood, my grandfather taught me how to cook it on a flame but I never experimented with other cooking methods, so it became a personal search of how to transform it and find other textures, flavours and combinations that complemented it. I want to show that with the same product I can achieve different preparations by working it 100% without wasting anything from head to toe, mixing migratory cultures.

I advocate, “to make full use of all things and sustainable ingredients."

I selected the specialty ingredient "Yanchi Tan Sheep" from Ningxia, China and local wild leek flowers. Using Chinese and Western fusion cuisine techniques to cook the lamb chops, lamb loin, lamb bones, internal organs and other parts combined with local flavours to form the flavour profile of the final dish. Puna series mineral water is used to cook the Yanchi Tan sheep, this is also the water that the sheep grew up drinking.

When making sauce and stock, I used the stock from making “lamb wrapped with lamb belly” combined with a sauce made from lamb bones. During cooking, kitchen utensils such as wide-mouth pots and pressure cooker are used to reduce the cooking time and to achieve the reduction of carbon emissions, and sustainability of ingredients. Geographical specialty product "Yanchi Tan Sheep" is selected with the intention to be the guardian of pure bloodlines, and to promote all over China and onward to the world.
 

I have been training in the culinary arts since I was 14 and that set me on my career path. It allowed me to gain a thorough understanding of Western gastronomy and culinary techniques. But I have never veered too far from what is familiar to me; Chinese cuisine is etched in my memory and I am mesmerized by it. Coupled with foreign elements, it has sparked whimsical surprises in my style of Chinese cuisine.
 

There are many ways to cook chicken in Guangzhou, and as the saying goes: “It is not a feast if you don’t have chicken”. This dish is originally a Cantonese-style crispy roast chicken. Chicken dries out easily because of its low fat content, and traditional methods of roasting or frying at high temperature are not healthy enough, so I use modern low-temperature slow-cooking cooking methods to process traditionally marinated chicken. This resulting chicken is not only tender and juicy, but also nutritious and healthy.

The chicken is stuffed with sweet pea paste and shrimp paste. This is a technique called "stuffing" in Chinese cuisine. One or several ingredients are made into puree and filled with another ingredient. During the heating process, the flavors of various ingredients integrate yet retain their own characteristics. The sweetness of the sweet pea puree and the saltiness of the shrimp bring a fuller taste experience to the chicken. I reduce the use of condiments, and unique original flavor of the ingredients themselves become more memorable.
 

During my time spent at Faroe Islands I create this dish with one purpose, to make something Mexican inspired but allowing myself to do it only with local resources but still following the tradition of my culture, and way of cooking.

Adapting a classic street dish like “ceviche and tostadas” to a more defined and detailed idea with technique behind and a mix of ingredients from both cultures.

I think food on these days is about adapting, connecting and evolving like all humans.

I want to send the message that we really must make sure that the local food production survives in the future. In Norway, we are losing more and more of the producers because people don’t buy their vegetables/products. I want to show how amazing vegetables can be, just cooked the right way and that you can order a vegetarian dish in a restaurant, and still feel full. I’m doing this using some traditional cooking methods in a more modern and vegetarian way and only using Local products.

I want to share Norwegian food culture through local ingredients. Growing up with hunting, fishing, and foraging taught me the value of nature and honest food. In a world focused on ultra processed food and sugar, I want to highlight local and organic ingredients with real flavour and identity. This dish reflects who I am as a chef and hunter, using deer, mushrooms and lingonberries to show what nature can give us.

It’s been three years, that I have seen my family due to the pandemic, three years since I've been to my ancestral home in ‘Aurangabad’, a city with a high Muslim population. The very place where I truly appreciated the true diversity of my cuisine and culture.
This dish is an amalgamation of my childhood, my roots and the vision I have to see my cuisine on the global stage amidst all its diverse and colorful glory. Where people do not just tag it as a “curry cuisine” but see it for what it is

Through this dish, I wanted to link my 2 countries of affection which are France, my country of origin, and Australia, the country that welcomes me.
For this, there was no question of importing products from Europe, nowadays I believe that it is up to our generation to limit the environmental impact through our cuisine.
So I looked for products grown and appreciated in each of the two countries, I then selected them individually from local producers, every single product comes from Queensland.

“Before Sustainability Was a Trend” reflects how Asian food cultures have long embodied sustainability through preservation, seasonality, and respect for ingredients. My selection of ingredients and techniques aims to reinterpret these principles while being guided by my Asian heritage and Australian upbringing. Highlighting biodiversity, whole animal utilisation and cultural continuity through combining old and new is how I hope to shape a more conscious future as a chef now and moving forward.

My dish is a tribute to the culinary traditions of eastern Poland. I sourced the sturgeon and caviar from the renowned Antonius brand in a neighboring village. The inspiration for the Masurian floral lace in my recipe comes from my grandmother, a talented embroiderer. My dish also features ferments, deeply rooted in Polish tradition. Accompanying beverage is enjoyed in my home on hot days. I aim to showcase the best of Polish cuisine: good products, respect for tradition, and an open-mindedness.

By presenting this dish i would like to convince people that we chefs are not only people that stand for many hours in front of the frying pan. We can all agree that we identify ourselves as artists. Plates for us are like a canvas for a painter. We create and express ourselves on it. Just like Leonardo da Vinci did and others. It’s not only our work but a big passion for life that we want to share with people in the restaurants like artists share their creations in galleries. WE ARE ARTISTS!

I see the future of gastronomy as a balance between innovation and heritage. In a world driven by speed, technology, and AI tools, I believe chefs have a responsibility to preserve the knowledge, techniques, and values that shaped our culinary identity. Through visible roots, beef broth, and slowly cooked beef shank, this dish reflects my commitment to respecting ingredients, minimizing waste, and valuing time as an essential ingredient. As a chef, I want to build a future where tradition is not

English Rose is my ode to London and the opportunities hospitality creates. Growing up in a difficult household, cooking became my path to purpose and success. Inspired by the English rose, I transform humble butternut squash into something elegant, showing how overlooked things can flourish when given opportunity. Kept vegan to celebrate its natural flavour, with seaweed providing natural salinity, this dish reflects how hospitality can help anyone rise above difficult beginnings.

With this dish, I would like to invite customers to travel into the summer season and beautiful products we can find in Suffolk, the sea bass comes from a fishmonger who work only with small boats and line caught fish. The cherries and the fennel are local from Suffolk farm This dish is a mix of the sea and country side which represent a big part part of the county identity.

I designed this dish as a homage to my wife and the restaurant we dream of opening which will fuse our two cultures together, NZ and SA, in a fine dining setting. I wanted to pay tribute to the lineage of bakers in my family by serving this dish with a bread, 1/2 Rewena, 1/2 Mosbollejtie, baked together to become one. I chose venison as it reminds me of fond childhood memories of hunting with my family, it's filled with a farce rolled in a South African boerewors spice to further weave our story.

I believe in Cuisine du terroir, sustainability and respect of the product.
As a young chef I consider myself responsible for preserving our nature. The dish follows the concept of “Farm to Fork”. We grow our own Wagyu cattle and the mushrooms, onions and huckleberry are grown locally which supports our farmers.
Coming from a Hindu family I have pushed all the boundaries to learn and develop my skills to work with our cows and I have immense respect for the animal that has given its life for me.

I think that cooking in our future will be simpler in a way. I think the best food is created with us allowing our ingredients to be who they are, by being intentional with each ingredient we choose and how we decide to work with them. I use the term happy food not just when someone feels joy eating, but as the cook who gets to reflect on a time in their life because they got to cook their dish.

I would like to show my background in culinary arts by showcasing what I’ve learned and experienced in my time in this industry. Showcasing new American cuisine that celebrates all cultures and techniques.

I was inspired by the future of global nutrition: I asked myself a simple question. Where is humanity going? In terms of evolutionary nutrition and fine dining I created this vegetarian course with the reflective purpose of having an eco-sustainable impact on planet earth. I was inspired in the construction of the dish by my homeland Puglia, in Italy, and I created it in a contemporary key.

I want to illustrate with my dish that we can present a beautiful and flavorful plate with just a few main ingredients. With those main products at the center, I want to go for a varied and complex mouthfeel.

A plate with too many ingredients takes the attention away from your product and moreover, it does not always form a whole. With this dish I want to show that you can bring a wide variation on your plate with just a few ingredients, even without going expensive in this case.

With this dish, I want to convey much more than just a culinary experience: I want to pass on a story of commitment to ecology and sustainable development. For me, Neirivue trout, caught in the pristine waters of the Gruyère region, embodies the tradition and quality that nature has to offer. By choosing to work with this local fish, I am committed to respecting and preserving our environment. The fresh, fragrant herbs from the Mossettes garden are at the heart of it all.