Regional Finalists 2022-23

My Dish, from a village by Kerala's backwaters, is inspired by where the historic spice route shaped our rich cultural heritage. I aim to BREAK THE SHELLS of outdated mud crab cooking methods, moving beyond traditional curries. I believe every part of the crab can be utilised wisely akin to other types of meat. My signature dish combines my grandmother's traditional flavour with innovative, sustainable twists inspired by my culinary travels in Southeast Asia, highlighting Kerala ingredients.

Through this dish, I want to convey the wonderful ingredients and food culture of Japan.
We also thought about garnishing the dish with shiso leaves and myoga, which are commonly used in Japan, and adding the aroma of sea bream skin chips and grilled green onions so that the dish would not become boring in terms of texture and flavor.
We also believe that the soup's consistency can be made easier to mix with rice and sea bream by using rice starch or by adding a little density to the soup.

This dish began with my love of lamb, and the hope to highlight my Hainanese heritage. Lamb has been a staple of the Hainanese diet (i.e. Dong Shan Lamb) and through this menu, it would be featured alongside ingredients and techniques that link the East with the West.
Taking inspiration from the Spice Route, also known as the Maritime Silk Roads, I have utilised spices such as cumin, fennel, Sze Chuan peppercorns and ginger, all of which were known and used in antiquity and traded in Asia.

I invent this plate in honor of the hard work of my father and my mother. My father always work in the cereal world and this is a very hard work. He gives is life to this work to make shure we miss nothing. I also put carrot because when i was young my mother have a big garden with a lot of carrots and i dont really like them at this time. Now this is one of my favorite vegetable. Also the duckling is my favorite animal proteine so that’s why i wan’t to serve them. I hope you let me show you!

This dish is an homage to my personal culinary journey. Being of Chinese Filipino decent, this dish is a culmination of the influence other countries have had on Filipino cuisine. I want to use this opportunity to showcase a beautiful bird sourced locally from Ontario,while flaunting a contemporary version of a classic dish replacing the pork. I’d like to think of myself like this Sinigang dish, a pinnacle of different influences and techniques I've learned from the different Chefs in my career.

Receiving whole deer every fortnight, I noticed that the unused offal was being wasted. So I decided to put them to good use in a dish to raise awareness of food waste. My aim is to promote responsible and sustainable cooking, reflecting my passion for gastronomy and my values of respect for natural resources.

Tikka Masala - a dish that started my culinary journey. It captivated me as a chef's apprentice with its layers of flavor, the first dish I mastered and the one that won my wife's heart, as the first dish I cooked for her. For this competition, I present it in two ways: whole, to enjoy it fully with all flavours present. But alongside it, a deconstructed version with all elements still present and polished, presented to highlight its individual mastery.

Seasonality and regionality play a fundamental role for me when creating my dishes.
Going through the world with open eyes, seeing what nature has to offer, helps me tremendously when creating new dishes.
I want to know where my products come from and how I can use the conditions of my environment for my dishes. Products should find their way onto a plate when they are available on the market in the best quality it can offer. The goal should always be to use the full potential of all products.

My dish is intended to showcase the colourful diversity and wonderful flavours of my homeland. The idea of my dish is based on my experiences and the various inspirations of my career. I want to put my homeland and our great produce centre stage.

‘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.

I would like to present this dish because it is the first dish I have offered in a starred restaurant. It is close to my heart because it took me a lot of time and trials to achieve the expected result. In addition, it represents for me a childhood memory. Indeed, my father is a baker and pastry chef. When I was little, he made pissaladières every day. I ate it often, I always loved it. Through this dish, my wish was to sublimate my father's pissaladière.

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.

This dish combines different flavors, textures and techniques. It's main objetive is to show the combination of duck breast with an oriental sauce, fresh vegetables and the crunchy almonds. The idea is to create a fusion between the different elaborations.

The origin of the techniques and flavours of this dish come from the city where my surname comes from, from an emblematic family who to this day represent historical flavours and maintain their roots, and above all from the great use that this region has made for centuries of the natural resources of its geography, such as rivers and countryside, where they ate from their own vegetable garden. This is a tribute to them.

With this dish I seek to change the focus generated by some products and turn it into something more personal. Using parts of not so common products and plating them in tableware designed and handcrafted by myself.

The recipe I propose represents my path: past, present and future.The eel is the most convivial ingredient of my homeland, cooked by a grandmother who thanks to it was able to gather everyone around a table. present in my Sardinia, worked and structured manages to give new variations. The bittersweet represents my present, the combinations, the olfactory references and above all intrigue with the taste, are the pillars of my current cuisine.

I really like being able to eat soup, in a cold version, even in summer or hot days.
The earthy elements are balanced by the different acidities present in the dish; the accompanying drink has the role of recalling the classic Borsch broth while introducing a contrast linked to the ph of the drink itself which makes tasting the dish more fun in the mouth.

I wanted to find a point that connects my cooking with the place where I learn and found my passion for it, mostly french, japanese and italian. I am naturally curious, and I love to create association with anything, connecting ingredients that are not supposed to belong together is magic to me. I love the contrast of sea - earth dish, swimming into the sea is like a reset button for me, I have a big love for it. I’m completely linked with the earth, I’m grateful for every product that I have the chance to work with.

The chinampas is an efficient and sustainable agricultural system, it is an articulated set of artificial floating islands that were built since pre-Hispanic times. Through this dish, which has been inspired by this ecosystem, using only ingredients that are grown or can be found in this place, applying techniques and preparations of Mexican gastronomy, I seek to highlight the importance of chinampas, the organic products that are grown there and also recognize the hard work of the producer.

I’m very passionate about gastronomy; my country, its people, and its ingredients bring out the flavors, in each one, of my dishes. Self-expression, for me, comes with every texture, color, and form of each detail. I recognize the importance of my surroundings, my community, and the products distinguished by their performance within sustainability guidelines. I have the responsibility to share with diners the richness, tradition, and culture that Mexican cuisine offers.
I am proud of Mexico.

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.

For me, the meat of the turbot fish is tender and not fishy, and it often appears on every household's dining table. The common cooking methods include steaming, braising, pan-frying, and more. Although it is a very common fish, I want to try to create a unique experience based on my own understanding. Furthermore, it seems that the concept of "numbing and spicy" is not widely known internationally. I hope to introduce the concept and let more people understand the charm of Chinese cuisine and the unique flavors it offers

Nature selflessly sustains all things. Cuisine should also be all encompassing – discover China’s local sea habitat and combine different techniques. To realize the borderless-ness and all-encompass-ness of cuisine. Just as the sea is vast and embraces all streams. Three pillars as one. With the ocean, time and the sun as the axis, extending their reach.

Begin with a thousand-layer potato prawn dumpling amuse bouche inspired by the traditional renowned dish Longjing Shrimp. For this dish, Zhoushan prawn, known for its quality comparable to Spanish Carabinero prawn, is paired with white konbu flavoured konbucha and fried moss, and is, unintentionally, a representation of local Chinese culture of enjoying morning tea.
 

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.
 

Denmark is the number one country of producing meat averaging 334 kg per person per year. However, as Denmark increasingly focuses on green energy and combating climate change, reducing the consumption of mass-produced meat becomes essential to lower the CO2 index. Through my dish I want to contribute to this change and adapt to a more sustainable future.

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.

Through this dish, I aim to evoke a sense of culinary heritage and connection to Sweden. The lamb symbolizes tradition and sustenance, reflecting the rich history of pastoral cultures. Each bite tells a story of resilience and harmony with nature and culinary craftsmanship. It embodies a cultural identity deeply rooted in reverence for quality ingredients and time-honored cooking techniques.

In New Zealand we have a large number of introduced pests like wild deer that damage our native flora and fauna. By using wild venison we can create an economy for conservation by giving a financial incentive for the pest control. Hunters can sell the meat and chefs can utilise a delicious clean natural protein in the kitchen. I want to show a way to use the whole animal by ulatising the offal & bones in an approachable way for customers. The more we sell creates more money for conservation.

Wapiti deer were introduced into New Zealand in 1905. Since then the feral herd escalated in numbers and volunteer groups put in huge efforts to contain them. Using wild deer in this dish, that would have otherwise been shot and left, is a key sustainable factor.
When eating wild venison I envisage walking through New Zealand bush and I am reminded of what deer eat in the wild. That is why this dish contains kawakawa, horopito and pikopiko. I am kūmara and a modern interpretation of Hāngi.

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.

I’d like to introduce my dish, to express my way of thinking about both cooking and dealing with life outside of gastronomy. the dish depicts a perfect circle of life, forests ( Deer), rivers (crayfish), mountains (cordyceps) all naturally connected and a human (chef) who unitedly combines nature with technology and cares for the environment. Without our healthy and clean approach to life, nature will not survive on its own nowadays, I would like to make people aware of this as much as possible

Through “The story of Cod” I wanted to give a modern twist to a traditional Greek recipe and products that are a part of every table in Greece. The goal was to showcase Greek gastronomic culture through a combination of tradition and modernity. Wanting to highlight the quality of Greek products, I chose to include ingredients found all over Greece. The message I wanted to convey was that complexity can occur through simple things and that we should get inspired by our roots and history.

My dish is called Friend's Ear. This is a traditional Hungarian dish. The reason, why this dish is close to my heart is because my Grandmother prepared it a lot for me and my siblings when we were young and I loved it back then, too. My Grandmother is unfortunately dement now and I cannot communicate with Her anymore. I feel like this dish makes us connect again.

Two fond memories from growing up was the excessive amount of celariac my grandma used to produce in her garden, and sailing off the west coast of Scotland and stopping off at some of the finest seafood shacks in the world eating some beautiful scallops . That's why the dish came to mind for my signature dish.

The inspiration comes from my experience in Tokyo and the memory of my childhood. I’d like to present a wonderful marriage between the ingredients from mountain and ocean, and I believe humble ingredients could also be the star. I love both French cuisine and Chinese cuisine and I believe all different cuisines have something in common. So I'd like to present some Chinese poaching technique, and the way we make chicken broth. It would be a French contemporary with a Chinese twist.

A Chef is someone able to forge a connection between times and who can intertwine the strings of time to create something beautiful. Food is central to our sense of identity. The way any given human group eats helps it assert its diversity, hierarchy and organisation, but also, at the same time, both its oneness and the otherness of whoever eats differently. I wanted to create a dish that reflects my background who couldn't think i would love pigeon.

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.

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

This dish represent my years of experience working in this industry, from a local pub or bistro, all the way to fine dining using the knowledge pass down to me from the chefs that came before me.I challenge myself to present a dish with ingredients that a I commonly not work with utilizing different cooking techniques, utilizing ingredients to their maximum minimizing waste, from the trimmings of proteins to the vegetable of stocks.

With this first course I wanted to create a link between land and sea, revisiting a typical preparation of my country, the porchetta. I am a lover of the sea and I wanted to make a preparation that combines the two in a modern way. Combining these also with pasta, it can never be missing in an Italian lunch. Tradition and innovation come together respecting the raw material.

When I started to create this dish a lot of people told me not to do it because it contains too much work.
So this explains my stubbornness and love for the work. The sweet potato also became my personal logo.

I want to express that you can make things very complex without a million technics. sometimes a pure product has his own complexities.

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.