The Winners of the Bocuse d’Or USA 2012
This past Sunday, I was invited by the generous people of KitchenAid as a VIP to watch Bocuse d’Or USA competition at The Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park, NY.
The view of the arena & Happy moment with Chef Daniel Boulud, Jerome Bocuse, Thomas Keller
The one I’ve watched on Sunday was a qualifying round to train and send the winner, which is Richard Rosendale, executive chef of the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., and his commis, Corey Siegel, a 21-year-old senior apprentice at the Greenbrier, to international Bocuse d’Or in France, January 29 and 30, 2013.
To those of you who aren’t familiar with Bocuse d’Or (the major one in Lyon, France) it is an intense, international cooking competition that is an equivalent to the Olympics that started back in 1987 and held every 2 years. Each team (there’s 24 of them) are given five and a half hours to create two elaborate platter presentations, one centered around seafood and one on meat, each accompanied by three original garnishes.
The above video clip is when Chef Jerome Bocuse (the son of Paul Bocuse) called his father and hear Bocuse give Team USA a blessing, when there was a break in between judging courses.
Chef Thomas Keller and I
There was some down time when the competition was happening. Food and beverages were catered by the host, The CIA, and their sponsors. The most notable moment was when the legendary Chef Thomas Keller of French Laundry and Per Se had taken some of his busy time to have his photo taken with me. It’s an honor.
It was awesome for me to watch and photograph this Olympian cooking competition (I used to dream of watching this event for the past few years). The plus was to see almost I know from the food blog and the restaurant world under one large roof. For me, it felt like a reunion of people I haven’t seen in a while and catch up with them.
Good luck to Chef Richard Rosendale, his Commis Corey Siegel and Team Bocuse d’Or USA! Hope you all kick butt in 2013.
To view more photos of my meal here, please click through the slideshow (or view my Flickr set):
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