The Big Cooking Contest 2008

From September 14 until 17, 2008 the Association of Austrian Chefs organized together with the company Eurogast, the Innsbruck Messe GmbH and the Tirol Tourist Board for the second time the “Big Cooking Contest” – a national and international cooking contest for cook trainees and young cooks up to the age of 23 – at the FAFGA Innsbruck. Recently this contest had been endorsed internationally by W.A.C.S. and could therefore now be organized worldwide.

The challenge of this competition for the participating teams of 2 persons was to prepare within half an hour a main dish for 4 people with the ingredients of a basket full of products. The competitors had no previous information about the ingredients.
After drawing a basket full of ingredients the team had 15 minutes to look at the ingredients, to name the main dish they had decided to prepare to the jury and to prepare their kitchen utensils.

Two teams were always competing with each other. In front of the kitchen there was a stand for spectators, from which the audience could watch the contest. The results were judged by an international top-class jury, formed by the president of the W.A.C.S. (World Association of Chefs' Societies, consisting of 75 member countries and 8 million members) Mr. Gissur Gudmundsson, the W.A.C.S. ambassador Dr.h.c. Siegfried Schaber, the president of the Slovenian Chefs’ Society Mr. Hans Szameitat, Mr. Peter Ulicny as representative of the German Chefs’ Society and finally the awarded chef Mr. Sieggried Kröpfl (Imperial Hotel, Vienna). Mr. Hans Haller (Chairman of the Tirol Trainee Examination Commission and Chairman of the Tirol Chef Examination) acted as chairman of the jury. All four days of the contest the presentation was held in German as well as in English. On September 14 Walter Opperer (Eurogast Sinnersberger) was responsible for the German presentation, the following days the responsible person was Mr. Franz Stolz while Sandra Hechenblaikner was responsible for the English presentation and interpretation.
Beside the president of the Austrian Chefs’ Society Mr. Harry Fargel the organizers of this year’s Big Cooking Contest could also welcome the famous ice carver and sculptor Alexander Schmidt, who enthused the audience with his unique ice figures.

The first contest started on September 14 with cook trainees from all Austrian regions. The winners and runner-ups of the previous “BCC” for trainees were running against each other in order to determine the overall winner (Grand Prix of the City of Innsbruck). Ten teams were participating in the competition, which started at 8.45 am. Every hour two teams were running against each other and finally, after a thrilling final with excellent performances, at 5:45 pm Robert Falvno and Manuel Schmuck from the Stanglwirt Hotel in Going were the first winners of the Big Cooking Contest at the FAFGA 2008. The second place went to Lukas Gritsch and Johannes Scherl (Trofana Hotel, Ischgl), third place to Verena Söllner and Anna Schwaiger from the Tourism College St. Johann i.T. and the fourth place to Manuel Wieser and Simon Hutegger from the Restaurant Braunhofer in Rohrmoos.
In addition to a glass trophy the winners received prize-money of € 1,000, second place € 600, third place € 400 and fourth place € 200. The prize money was provided by the city of Innsbruck and therefore handed over to the winning teams by the mayor of Innsbruck, Mrs. Hilde Zach.

The international competition for young cooks up to the age of 23 started on September 15 with the qualification rounds. This year 25 teams came to Innsbruck to participate in the “BCC” – the teams were coming from Germany, Slovenia, Hungary, Estonia, Italy and Austria. Members of the top-class jury were Mr. Gissur Gudmundsson (president of the W.A.C.S.), Dr.h.c. Siegfried Schaber (W.A.C.S. ambassador), Mr. Hans Szameitat (president of the Slovenian Chefs’ Society), Mr. Peter Ulicny as representative of the German Chefs’ Society and finally the awarded chef Alexander Marent (Jungbrunn Hotel, Tannheim). Again Mr. Hans Haller (Chairman of the Tirol Trainee Examination Commission and Chairman of the Tirol Chef Examination) acted as chairman of the jury.
Ten teams, from which the best five teams reached the quarter-finals, were competing on the first day of the international competition. At 5.45 pm - after hours of thrilling qualification rounds and excellent cooking performances - the jury named the teams who had reached the next qualification round and at the same time saw off the eliminated teams.

On September 16, the second qualification day, 15 teams were competing with each other. The top-class jury was formed by the same members as the day before; only instead of chef Alexander Marent Mrs. Andrea Speckbacher (Eurogast Reutte) was judging the young cooks. Again it was a thrilling day with cooking performance of high-level. In the evening the jury named the 5 teams which had reached the next round and the eliminated teams were seen off by the president of the W.A.C.S. Gissur Gudmundsson and the other jury members.

September 17 was the day of the finals. The following teams reached the quarter-finals: Patrick Rofner and Franziska Kerle (Schwarzbrunn Hotel, Stans), Bernd Fleschitz and Johann-Michael Maier (Hilton Hotel Vienna), Stefan Sraka and Martin Blejec (Slovenian national youth team), Hanna Eckhoff and Stefan Lange (Tourism College Hamburg), Andreas Schmuck and Hans-Jürgen Saurer (“Der Steirerhof” Hotel, Bad Waltersdorf), Lukas Gritsch and Johannes Scherl (Trofana Royal Hotel, Ischgl), Dejan Pavlic and Primo Vodeb (Slovenian national youth team), Christian Schiechl and Phillipp Brandner (Reiter’s Supremehotel, Bad Tatzmannsdorf), Manuel Schmuck and Patrick Gfrerer (Stanglwirt Hotel, Going) and Robert Edor and Sascha Lehmann (Alpenresidenz Hotel Happy Austria, Klein Walsertal).
Members of the top-class jury were Mr. Reinhold Metz (president of W.A.C.S. Europe), Dr.h.c. Siegfried Schaber, Mr. Hans Szameitat, Mr. Peter Ulicny and the Michelin starred chef Simon Taxacher who was awarded “Chef of the year 2007”. Again Mr. Hans Haller acted as chairman of the jury. The quarter-finals started at 8.45 am and the teams were competing for reaching the semi-finals with cooking performance of very high-level.
The following teams reached the semi-finals: Christian Schiechl and Phillipp Brandner (Reiter’s Supremehotel, Bad Tatzmannsdorf), Hanna Eckhoff and Stefan Lange (Tourism College Hamburg), Andreas Schmuck and Hans-Jürgen Saurer (“Der Steirerhof” Hotel, Bad Waltersdorf) and Lukas Gritsch and Johannes Scherl (Trofana Royal Hotel, Ischgl). These four teams were competing for reaching the great final.
As the performances of the best teams enhanced steadily, it became more and more difficult for the jury to come to a decision. After lengthy discussion in order to really choose the best teams, the following teams reached the final: Christian Schiechl and Phillipp Brandner, Lukas Gritsch and Johannes Scherl. A thrilling final followed: The basket of ingredients consisted of a blood sausage, 500 g lamb back strap, 100 g olives, one package of tricolored pepper and 160 g polenta. With these ingredients Lukas Gritsch and Johannes Scherl prepared a fried lamb back on roasted pepper and other vegetables and samosa filled with blood sausage with rosemary sauce. Christian Schiechl and Phillipp Brandner prepared a lamb back in olive crust, blood sausage-pepper-lasagne, crispy couscous and sherry sabayon.
The top-class jury had to reach a difficult decision, but finally they named Lukas Gritsch and Johannes Scherl (Trofana Royal Hotel, Ischgl) as the winners of the Big Cooking Contest 2008. The two young cooks received prize money of € 2,000. The second team received € 1,600, the third team Hanna Eckhoff and Stefan Lange (Tourism College Hamburg) € 1,200 and the fourth team Christian Schiechl and Phillipp Brandner (Reiter’s Supremehotel, Bad Tatzmannsdorf) € 1,000 as well as a glass trophy. The total amount of prize money provided by the Tirol region was € 5,200 and was handed over to the winning teams by Mr. Anton Pertl, representative of the regional parliament.

During his final speech Mr. Gissur Gudmundsson, president of the W.A.C.S., mentioned that he had refused an invitation for dinner with the Danish Royal Family in order the come to Innsbruck and to attend this contest. In no case he regretted his decision and it was a great pleasure for him to watch the excellent performance of the young cooks.
The competition itself was for him the toughest competition Europe-wide for the participants and he expressed his admiration for the young cooks, who exposed themselves to this high stress and pressure to perform. He was impressed by the skills the young cooks showed under high stress. As far as he is concerned, there is absolutely no reason to be preoccupied about their future careers.

The president of W.A.C.S. Europe, Reinhold Metz, closed his final speech with the same words as last year: “It was an excellent contest und I can only repeat and confirm – good, better, Tyrol!”

Once more the section Tirol congratulates the winners of this year’s Big Cooking Contest and thanks all participating teams for their great performance. Furthermore we would like to thank our sponsors and everybody who was involved in organizing the event.
The event did not only fascinate the audience and the representatives of the regional government as well as the Innsbruck city council, but showed in a successful and excellent way what the job “COOK” is about.

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