SCHOTT solutions no. 2/2011 > Cooking Competition

Showdown for the ”Chef of the Year”: The finals of this well-known competition which nearly 400 professional chefs from Germany, Austria and Switzerland participated in this year were held at the world‘s leading food trade fair Anuga in Cologne. They cooked on CERAN® cooktops. Photo: SCHOTT/A. Sell

It’s All about the Ingredients


Environmental protection a top priority for the international ”Chef of the Year” competition – thanks also to CERAN® glass-ceramic cooktop panels.


Thilo Horvatitsch

It hisses, steams and sizzles – and smells simply delicious! When eight select professional chefs work their magic on stage, a lot of people are sure to take notice, even if this is at Anuga 2011 in Cologne. The world’s largest trade fair for the retail food and catering trade saw 6,500 exhibitors and 150,000 visitors from 180 countries this year. The event once again served as the stage for a very special occasion: the crowning of the ”Chef of the Year”. The finals of the competition are held every two years. This time, close to 400 professional chefs from Germany, Austria and Switzerland took part in the preliminary rounds, giving the competition, which originated in Spain in 2004 and is extremely popular among industry insiders, an international flair for the first time ever. There are plans to broaden the competition to all of Europe by 2015.
Photo: SCHOTT/A. Sell
This offers exciting prospects for the event’s sponsors, too. ”As an international manufacturer that is innovative and environmentally friendly, we are definitely targeting the right audience,” says Stefan-Marc Schmidt, Vice President Marketing and Sales for SCHOTT Home Tech. Featuring its well-known brand CERAN® this year, the technology group served as one of the main sponsors of the cooking competition that not only exemplifies creativity and top performance, but also environmental awareness. ”Sustainability and environmental friendliness in the kitchen are new trends that we support,” says Núria Roig de Puig, manager of the ”Chef of the Year” for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Photo: SCHOTT/A. Sell
This is why all of the participants in the preliminary rounds and finals cooked solely on CERAN® glass-ceramic cooktop panels. After all, this product is the first of its kind to be manufactured without using arsenic and antimony and thus spares the environment 180 tons of these substances every year. And it is also an important reason why SCHOTT CERAN® received the German Innovation Award 2010 and was nominated for the German Sustainability Award 2011.
Photo: SCHOTT/A. Sell
Even the meals for the finals at Anuga were prepared with the environment in mind. The goal was to use regional and seasonal products that didn’t have to be shipped and thus did not harm the environment. For the finals, each chef prepared an original three-course meal for six people on a budget of no more than 16 euros per person. The finalists had to prepare their meals six times in five hours. Then, the total of 18 plates had to be served in 15 minutes. A jury of prominent experts headed up by the well-known German chef Dieter Müller selected the chef of the year based on this performance. But the clear winner was selected well in advance of the ­competition: ”CERAN® cooktop panels can be found in almost all professional kitchens,” says Stefan-Marc Schmidt. <|

Sebastian Frank is ”Chef of the Year 2011”

Photo: SCHOTT/A. Sell
The top chef at Berlin’s Horvath restaurant, Sebastian Frank, came in first place in the ”Chef of the Year” competition with a rather challenging dish. The jury members judged all of the eight finalists’ dishes based on taste, presentation, creativity and composition.

Along with the title ”Chef of the Year”, the 29-year-old native Austrian also received 12,000 euros in prize money. Frank won over the jury by preparing an appetizer that consisted of fall vegetables with hazelnuts, followed by a main course of entrecote, onions, elderberries, sturgeon and lobster. His dish was complemented perfectly with a dessert made with carrots, black currant, lemon, sheep’s milk yogurt, crispy almond oil and rose geraniums. Second place in this head-to-head competition went to Tristan Brandt (to the left in the right photo) from Victor’s Gourmet Restaurant Schloss Berg in Perl-Nennig on the Moselle; David Papin (to the right in the right photo) from Lago in Ulm came in third.

In keeping with the latest trend among aspiring professional chefs to rely mainly on regional and seasonal products in their gourmet cuisine, the winning cook said, ”We welcome cuisine with ingredients that didn’t have to travel halfway around the world first – it’s a burden on the environment that is unnecessary. This is also the case with CERAN® cooktop panels from SCHOTT – they are not only perfectly suited for cooking, but also environmentally friendly.” <|
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