The Culinary Olympics: heat in the kitchens

You know the Olympics. Every four years the best athletes of the world compete for glory honoring the ancient Greek tradition. Every four years, exactly on the same year of the summer Olympics, chefs from around the world come to Germany to compete in a culinary edition of the event. Are they the best? In what they do, competition cooking, they probably are, but they’re not what most of us would define as the best cooks in a customer oriented perspective. I’ll get to that later. First let me give a brief overview of the whole event.

The culinary Olympics started shortly after the end of World War II. The first edition was organized by German chefs, but took place in Switzerland. The event soon moved to Germany and took place for many years in Frankfurt; after the reunification of West and East Germany, the seat was moved first to Berlin and than to Erfurt, where it took place again this year between October 16-20. The competition is opened to different teams; National, Youth, Military, Community and Regional teams all compete in their own category with their special set of rules. Medals are given both for the single events in each category, depending on points obtained, and for the total score. While more than one team can win the same medal in each single category, the same doesn’t apply to the final standing: the three teams with the highest points will receive gold, silver and bronze.

I had mixed feelings about the whole thing. Sure, this was going to be cooking at really high standards but at the same time the food that would be prepared would have to fit very strict standards, maiming any creative and playful impulse. The whole concept here is not surprising or cuddling the public but rather showing off your skills to other professionals. Asking if the chefs present were the best in the world is pretty misleading: the usual standards we restaurant goers would apply mean little or nothing here. The risk and, in a way, the underlying atmosphere, is that of an artificial cuisine being presented. If I had to choose, I probably wouldn’t pick a restaurant serving this food as first choice; technique is fundamental but alone it is nothing short of onanism.

Does this mean I didn’t enjoy the culinary Olympics, or that I found the event frustrating? Not at all. The critics above loose much of their sense on an occasion like this. The atmosphere alone of the event is incredible. Think about walking around surrounded by chefs in their whites, everyone talking about food, the adrenalin from the competition almost palpable in the air. The happiness or the disappointment of those competing is no less than that shown by professional athletes.

I was only able to attend on the fourth and last day of the Olympic. Almost everyone was keeping an eye on the National teams competition. Each team competes in three events: two buffet style cold platter shows and a hot cooking one. The score board up to day three showed two favorites for gold; Sweden, gold in the last edition, and Canada both having two golds in the cold platter events and fighting for first place in the hot kitchen test. Whereas the cold platters get, in part, tasted by judges only, the hot kitchen event is a chance for the public to try out the ability of the chefs. In theory anyone could buy a ticket for any of the teams up on a particular day. In practice the top teams were sold out in advance so I had to choose between Portugal and Holland, choosing the former.

Before lunch was served I had plenty of time to look around. Each team engaged in the competition would be cooking in a “glass kitchen”, to allow the public to have a look at the preparation of the dishes. All the teams looked pretty cool, ticking away as a machine, at least until close to service time when movements and atmosphere turned pretty hectic. The opening picture of the post is a shot of the US team at work.

While I didn’t get a chance to taste what most teams did, I could at least have a look at the dishes. Every team had set up a display with the three courses, appetizer, main and dessert, being served for everyone to see and take pictures of.
I’ve included a small selection of the dishes that looked more interesting

USA's National Team appetizer: Trilogy of American Crab with She Crab Bisque, Crab Terrine and Crispy Crab Leg.

Canada's National Team appetizer: Scallop Dumpling, Lobster Cake and Pan Seared Birch Syrup Infused Salmon, Cucumber Mango Salsa, Green Apple and Young Seedling Salad.

Sweden's National Team appetizer: Turbot Pastrami, Carrot Terrine, Seafood Tatar, Heart of Artichoke, Green Beans and Citrus Sauce.

Sweden's National Team main course: Stuffed and Gratinated Loin (Lion in the printed menu, I needed a few minutes to get it), Red Wine Glace, Smoked and Roasted Derr Dumplings, Selection of Vegetables, Gelee of Chantarelles, Potato Leek Foam.

USA's National Team dessert: Elements of Fall Flavors featuring Pastry with the Flavors of Pumpkin, Apple, Vanilla, Hazelnut and Caramel and Cranberry.

Australia's National team dessert: Chocolate Orange Cardamom Marquise, White Truffle Cream, Cookie Tower, Blood Orange Sorbet, Ginger Espumas, Citrus Salad.

Between looking at the cooks at work, chatting with a few people and taking pictures time went by really quickly. The teams started moving at an impressive speed and soon dishes started getting served.

My Portuguese menu was fine but not more than that. I wasn’t surprised to find out that the judges thought along the same lines giving the Portuguese a rather low score in the end.

Portugal's National Team appetizer: Tiger Prawn Stuffed with Romanesco, Two Potatoes Confit with Ice Cream of Curry and Spider Crab, Aioli Sauce.

Portugal's National Team main course: Lamb Carre' with a Citrus Crust, Jumbo Quail Supreme stuffed with Baby Corn, Mushroom and Ox Cheek Pie, Vegetable Terrine, Garlic and Sage Froth.

Portugal's National Team dessert: Chocolate Brownie with 3 Mousses, Cannelloni of Wild Berries with a Vanilla Cream Pastry and Mango Sauce.

The appetizer was especially disappointing, with the ice tasting of nothing much except vanilla and the potatoes as uninteresting as it can get. The main was much better, especially the lamb and the ox and mushroom pie, pity it was so tiny :-).

…continues

Comments

[Niki]

I just read a tiny snippet in the newspaper that Australia won the culinary Olympics, with the USA second! Is this true? - or are they referring to the dessert section or World Pastry Cup, in which I *know* we had sent a team.

[Petra]

Great pictures, interesting article :-)
I absolutely agree with you, I also had the impression of an "artificial cuisine" when I saw the presentations.

[Clement]

It would be interesting to hear each team's philosophy behind their dishes; they look very refined, down to the smallest detail. Is the competition similar to Bocuse d'Or? Thanks for sharing; great photos, by the way!

[Alberto]

Niki, it is, sadly for youdown under, not true. The winners in the next post, just to keep a bit of suspance.

Petra: the feeling of artificial cuisine is there but the hot kitchen competition was still OK. What really touched pure astraction was the platters of the buffet show, coming up :-)

Clement: I would have liked to know more about the team's philosophy too, but there's very little interaction between teams and jury on one side and public on the other. Maybe the judges get to know that. I think the Bocuse d'Or leaves much more freedom to the cooks. I have heard that at the Olympics meat/vegetable ratio, portion weight, and similar are all fixed and are one of the judgment criteria. You can immagine how little room for creativity that leaves. Happy you liked the photos... especially coming from you :-).

[ronald]

poor portughese team... what went wrong there?!

[Alberto]

Well, I didn't want to be mean but if you really want to know ...

let's just say that at a certain level one should expect certain skills, especially technical ones. Just to give one example (there's more) if I go to a classy restaurant and see comfit of potatoes in the menu, as in their appetizer, and get served slightly raw and badly chopped ones it is disappointing. I also think they didn't manage to finish cooking on time, at least judging from the time we had to wait, and that counts quote a lot for the judges.

[Winslow]

I stumbled upon this page while trying to get some information for a research paper. Does anybody know the original teams that competed in the Culinary Olympics? Does anybody have any ideas about where I can find this out?
Thanks!