Regional Finalists 2022-23

My dish is a celebration of the vibrant culinary traditions of Indonesia, infused with the gastronomic influences I’ve embraced since moving to Hong Kong. At its core is Nasi Tumpeng, a ceremonial Javanese dish that is the centerpiece of any family gatherings.

As a nod to my Indonesian heritage, I will present my interpretation of the iconic Sumatran dish Sate Padang featuring a deeply flavorful grilled Hong Kong duck, connecting the flavors of my past and present.

This dish is made using a "priced" protein in our ASEAN culture. It is not something we get to enjoy much of as it was expensive as well. Many farms and villagers I have visited prior to the opening of restaurant Province have hardly enjoyed a prestiges protein as duck. However, when enjoyed it is truly for a special occasion, be it a birthday, wedding or a personal achievement for the families. This dish helps to tell the story of how the different cultures come together as one in a dish.

Malaysia, Taiwan, and Singapore are the places influenced me the most. Through this dish, starting from the broth, it's like starting a new journey into the unknown, mist yet exciting; followed by the snack, when you walk into the wood somehow can see delicate food prepared by the nature; and last is the main, you enter the heart of the wood and much more things to explore, which just like our culinary journey. I want to set new trend that how different backgrounds can create interesting story.

This dish only uses sustainable ingredients that are locally available in the winter months. When most restaurants are relying on imported produce, local farms are still providing us with root vegetables and apples. On the rocky beaches, the oysters become plump and sweet. I hope to communicate a sense of place and a sense of time, and to show that local eating goes beyond the bounty of the summer months. In the pared-back simplicity of winter there is still beauty and flavour to be found.

I want to pay tribute to our forests and also to our ancestors who lived there using ancestral cooking methods such as crust baking and banique bread. I also want to bring back memories and make you nostalgic with the smell of dead leaves when you go mushroom picking. The mushrooms will also be showcased, as will some of the trees that can be found there. I really want to transport the judges to a forest in the middle of autumn.

This dish reflects my life and experiences—a blend of French culinary skill and comforting home flavors from Canada as a multicultural nation. Montreal's Chinatown was my sanctuary, sparking my fascination with diverse culinary traditions, inspiring me still today. Cooking, for me, is love and passion, rooted in respect—using every part of ingredients, minimizing waste, letting flavors shine. Join my journey as a French-Canadian chef celebrating diverse influences shaping my culinary identity.

With this dish, I present my homeland on a plate and showcase my Bavarian/Franconian roots with typical components from pub cuisine. My motto is to make pub cuisine special and fresh in its simplicity. Classic Bavarian cuisine is known for its heaviness and richness. However, I want to show that it can also be dynamic, light and appealing without losing its traditional charm.

I would like to show that we can eat less meat and fish and eat more vegan or vegetarian.
You can get so many nice flavours and combinations that we can all eat less animals but still get the feeling to have eaten something special

This Dish is my Handwriting, it is all the experiences I collected over the years in every kitchen I worked, starting from what my mother cooked for me when I was a child. My Grandma created many dishes with offals, and that was the inspiration for my ragout. I Love to make some old traditional dishes in a new modern way with a touch of Asian style.

‘Quanto sei bella Roma’ is a tribute to my hometown, Rome. The title comes from a famous song about this city that for me is the most beautiful in the world. I left Rome about 10 years ago to grow personally and professionally, but my heart will always belong to it and I am happy to represent it with a dish in such an important competition. It is a traditional recipe that my grandmother used to prepare for me (Coda alla vaccinara) and which I propose in my own way, gastronomically speaking.

A plate full of memories of my trip to Bretagne in the summer. I found a wild fennel herb in the nature of Bretagne, I bought organic vegetables and herbs from local producers. I fished in the sea of Bretagne, (natural fish and natural common cockle and seaweeds that actually experienced fishing)
The main ingredient,Turbot, is baked, The Flounder Fin, bone-based sauce, and Turbot skin chips, all of which can be cooked and enjoyed with different sauces and garnishes.

Through this dish I wanted to put at the center of the plate a region which is rich with simple products. Sturgeon is not usually valued for its meat but for its caviar, it is not an easy fish to work, but I wanted to put it in the spotlight and use the caviar to season it only , give him back what belongs to him, with respect for the products and the producers.

I would like to express the evolution of nuances and flavours that develops in cold-ripened sea bass without humidity. The maturation of pork pieces is a technique widely used in our area, it is carried out in the winter months in order to take advantage of the dry cold. The impediment of having fresh fish available on a daily basis has led us to implement this technique and adapt it in the restaurant to achieve a regularity in quality and a product with a great complexity of flavour and nuances.

Kitchen and gastronomy are my life since I was young. I move to Açores , I fell in love with the gastronomy of the region and I want to try to bring and mix the oldest traditions with new technics, new vision with my personal touch , in this way I hope to put Açores gastronomy in the map , be a reference in the culinary world . Must part of the ingredients are local.
I would like to contribute , so that traditions are not forgotten, preserve and promote the azorean traditions

The dish tries to capture the work philosophy that characterises me in its maximum expression, for this I base it on a traditional stew from Valencia called "All i pebre", always the cuisine of my territory by flag, but drinking from other cultures to enrich the elaborations, in this case with Mexican influence with the mole, the nixtamalisation as an ancestral technique applied to the current cuisine. In short, this dish conveys tradition from a modern perspective of respect for our roots.

I believe as human being that we are very sick. Imagination and language is what did separated humans from animal.
Today peoples are not conscious of who we really are and the consequence is that we create confusion, trends and bad ego is the protagonist in this planet. Today we try to fix this planet by using one word, sustainability.
who really know the significant of that word and who first went to see inside of the most scary place of this world? I think it is better to start from us...

This dish represents me and everything I wanted to believe in. I was born in Milan, moved to Ancona, mother Bolognese, father Milanese and Sicilian grandparents This could only lead to my personal split. This leads me to a singular deepening of every part of me, held together at the same time by feelings, passions and personal beliefs. So is my Signature Dish: the ingredients are enhanced individually but even more when combined thanks to the untied sauce.

Migration and Integration
Arriving in a new place is not always easy and even more so it is not easy to integrate and be accepted with your traditions by people with a culture different from yours. The African slaves in Peru in 1800 were able to integrate their spices and traditions to a very important dish in the Inca culture such as the carapulcra.With this dish I want to tell my journey, playing with techniques, shapes and colors to propose the flavors of my land with an Italian twist.

“Mackerel, plantain and coconut” refers to the day to day life of people living in humble seaside towns in Costa Rica, it highlights the value of these undervalued products and a perspective on a simpler way of living where waste is not an option.In these areas zero waste is not a trend but a viable way to feed an entire family. And instead of seeing it as something that limits it can be a source of inspiration for creating unique preparations and finding ways to enhance their flavour.

A fufu portrait is the story of the Riquelme’s, my family from my mother’s side. In all our gatherings we’ll come together around this delicious soup made from fish head, coconut milk, curry, and root vegetables. Why just the head? Because the rest of the fish we pickled it in our family’s escobish.
As a kid, it was beautiful to see all my aunts having fun around those pots trying to feed a battalion. For me fufu and escobish represent the strong bond between my kin and the roots of my people.

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.

The inspiration for this dish came from my hometown: Ningbo, Zhejiang. There is a dish in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province called Stir-Fried Rice Cake and White Crab. The white rice cake on the plate is the original slice of rice cake with ginger oil brushed on it. Under the white rice cake are crab meat, chive, tarragon, crab paste egg meringue, and white crab bisque. The snack in the upper left corner is another dish inspired by hometown: bean curd skin-wrapped yellow croaker. I replaced the yellow croaker with crab legs and sprinkled the tomato puree powder from the Bisque making process. This dish is from my hometown, but it is presented in a way that is not traditional. I believe this presentation method can be accepted by more people.

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.
 

In Chinese culture, there is an old saying, "Eat what is in season," which means that the right time creates flavors, and if missed, one must wait patiently. Watching the ingredients in the liquid or the proliferation of fungi during the making of rice koji, I have been struck by the unique flavors these processes bring to food, reminding me of the preciousness of life. As a chef, I believe it is my duty to cherish this gift of life brought by time, allowing it to continue in a different form. I believe that this gift should not be used solely for profit, but should be shared with everyone, allowing them to experience its charm.

My culinary journey starts at the outbreak of the covid pandemic. Finding myself at a crossroad, I chose to go back to the roots and enroll in a French culinary program. There I discovered a passion for the arts. Meeting my mentor Chef Mathew Leong was my next career milestone. This dish represents my journey, as well as my identity. Cooking with high quality Norwegian produce, using french technics with an asian twist. I wish to show that all goals are reachable, even with a late start.ano

With more than 10 years experience in different countries it took me a second to realize and change mi mindset when it comes to cooking when I landed in Sweden a year ago, all green and good use of resources. My personal goal in my career is to reduce waste as much as possible, we are so many in this planet but most of us don't do enough to minimize our negative impact in nature. I believe we can do so much more and what´s better than start with what we eat in our restaurants?

With this dish, I want to show that worldly flavors can be achieved with products from our own country or region, promoting sustainability and supporting local farmers and suppliers. This dish is entirely based on vegetables and fruits, and contains no animal products. By doing this, we challenge ourselves and demonstrate that the same flavors can be achieved without using animal ingredients.

I was born and raised in Sichuan, China. With my professional training from Le Cordon Bleu in Australia, I found Australia can be a bridge of combination of two completely different flavours and cultures. I have considered South Australia as my second home, and I love the wide range of fresh ingredients and indigenous products. I want to bring the authentic Sichuanese flavour to South Australia and create my own food style inspired by modern western cuisine in the short future.

I am pleased to present a new dish that highlights some of the extraordinary ingredient we are fortunate to have in Australia, ingredients that many people may not even be aware of. This culinary creation features various cuts of lamb, each prepared using distinct techniques that enhance their unique flavours and textures. My inspiration for this dish stems from my childhood growing up on my grandfathers farm in rural Queensland.

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

This dish stems from the global need to change the fine dining concept. I believe that the process of dining in a restaurant should be more educational, interestin and enjoyable for guests, with the help of other arts such as theatrical. With this dish, I will conjure up a performance about Sava Savanović, the first Serbian vampire, and country i came from, with the fact that in dish food will play the main role, where each segment of the dish will tell its own part of the story in this play.

The dish is an ode to my hometown Acre, a mixed city of Jews & Arabs, located by the Sea. I Combine haute cooking techniques and local ingredients with classic Jewish recipes, creating a fusion that reflects my hope for peace in our region. I’m using blue crab as the main ingredient, an invasive local species. Diluting it, helps to the restoration of the local maritime ecosystem. It’s presented in the dish in 4 ways, expressing zero waste and Nose to Tail principles with local ingredients.

Today's dish is more than just a meal; it is a plea for sustainability and responsibility. The present we live in is marked by major ecological challenges. Water pollution,food waste,and climate change are just a few of the urgent issues demanding our attention. These are not just statistics; Perhaps the Earth is sending us a message,urging us to return to essentials. Now, more than ever, we need to remember this simplicity and cook with conscience. Come back to our roots. This dish is a manifesto.

Having spent so much time designing courses through local and expensive ingredients, I decided to go back to what I grew up eating. Born in South Africa and raised in the UK, a staple of our family meals was South African and this dish is inspired by the spice of the curry. The soft custard and fruits provide textures and softness through out.

Through a desire to seek out and understand culture outside of my own, I have been able discover so much about myself and the food I want to create. I am inspired by the flavours/methods of the world, and I want to use what I have discovered by cooking delicious food without boundaries. Ode to Sam Yee is an homage to my partner who has shared her culture with me. This dish combines Chinese flavours with my classically trained French cooking methods. This is about creating new traditions.

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.

This dish pays homage to the fishermen and farmers of my hometown, Kerala. Full use of the ingredients grown, farmed, and fished in the region has shaped the cuisine into one that is humble and driven by the people who have been there for generations and for much of this time it hasn’t been showcased in a modern setting. Now in Chicago, I have begun to understand how hospitality and artistic expression can bring a cuisine like this to new audiences and evoke a connection to a foreign cuisine.

My intention was to use every piece of an often-overlooked ingredient, prepare it in a variety of ways, and build depth with fermented products. Leek hearts were steamed and marinated, more fibrous leaves were braised for pasta filling, inner leaves were made into a mousseline with leftover quail egg whites, the leek tops were made into an oil, a few leaves were fried to make leek hay, and the remaining scraps were made into an ash to color the pasta dough. Paired with miso, amazake, and shoyu

I have always been inspired by the way my family in Greece and Italy embrace food, especially coastal fare. In my professional career I have learned so much more about traditional French and Japanese technique, and through this dish, I have found an all encompassing way to convey my passion for food.

Through this vegetable dish, the idea is to show that a simple product can become a complex and flavorful dish on its own. You can get a range of different flavors and textures through lacto, cooking, or the combination of products.

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.

My roots are in emmental. In the past this was a classical dish for special occasions like birthdays and christening. I re-invented this recipe new style incl. Eco-conscious eating. I used products as in the earlier days like Lamm, Safran, cream, dried fruit but in another combination and compilation.