Regional Finalists 2024-25

"Miso-marinated" Omi beef and "heshiko," aged fish, have a history of hundreds of years in my hometown. I added the traditional French "hollandaise sauce" and "cherries condiment" to create a new dish. The cherries harmonize the traditional cuisine of both countries. However, if climate change continues, cherries will no longer be available in the future. This shows that while historic dishes can evolve, there is a future where foods may no longer exist.

In February 2023, just before opening my restaurant, we visited a bee farm in Koh Samui and saw unused beeswax being discarded. Inspired, I created a sustainable dish that minimizes waste. Using locally sourced fish, I perfected a beeswax cooking method for the fillet and transformed every part of the fish into unique components. This plate is a harmonious blend of Thai flavors, Italian influences, and global experiences.

I choose this dish because my mom used to cook this for me and now I cook it for my son. I wan to represent thai heritage dishes in a modern way, to reflect that if the products are treated with love and respect, so the dish will be. I refine the flavours and techniques to elevate it even more, to show the proud heritage of the Thailand ingredients and recipes.

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.

Through my dish I am showing my journey throughout my years in the culinary industry. The last few years I have learned many skills that I incorporated into my dish. Such as making pasta, broths and foams as I did on my first station. To butchering fish and making mousses which did after switching sections. With the message that perfection is a lot of little things done well, learning something each day big or small, one day you look back on where you started and what you are doing now.

This is the purest form of expression of my journey. This dish will take you through the beginning of my career all the way to the present. It takes inspiration from my grandmother’s impactful love for cooking transmitted to me as a young girl, to the reflection of my culinary career. My development as a chef and the learning of cultures, were turning points of finding my own identity and what has devoted me to this chapter.

With my dish I would like to express my passion for dance. Swan Lake is a Russian ballet set to the music of Tchaikovsky. I want to combine Russian cuisine with Russian ballet. At the same time, I want to infuse the mostly male-dominated Michelin-starred cuisine with femininity and lightness. Contrasts such as the light and dark of the white swans and the black swan compete with each other, both visually and in terms of taste.

The Char is a fish which lives directly in our alpine lakes in Ladis. So the main ingredient stands for my home town. The char is served in 2 different styles. Once as "Cordon Bleu" and once stained. With the dish i would like to show, that it´s possible to connect typical ingredients and tastes from my home town with tastes and ingredients from all over the world. So the whole world on "one plate".

With this dish, I present my homeland on a plate and showcase my Bavarian/Franconian roots with typical components from pub cuisine. My motto is to make pub cuisine special and fresh in its simplicity. Classic Bavarian cuisine is known for its heaviness and richness. However, I want to show that it can also be dynamic, light and appealing without losing its traditional charm.

My name is Klervi. It's a Celtic name from Brittany, Bretagne region of France from my mother. She gave me the taste of the gastronomic products with the fish, the seaweeds and the buckwheat. I found this passion again few years later when I met my Mentor from Japan. We found out that the products from Bretagne and Japan are quite the same. The Colombo, is a memory from my childhood in Guadeloupe, french island in the Caribbean. The sea is the link between this 3 regions and my traveling diary.

I would like to express my technique and all the skills I have learnt. I've travelled a lot but I'm still connected to Brittany, my home region, even though I've left. I'm very attached to it. Now that I've settled in the Ardèche, my dish represents both, the saltiness of Brittany and the technique of Royans raviole. I'd like to show you that I can present something that is extremely simple at first glance, even though all the fillings in it are complex.

This dish tells my story, expressing my passion for mushrooms with a skewer of mushrooms, laced with their broth and miso. The other central element is the mushroom broth, present in almost every preparation. As a homage to France, I chose: onion soup with toasted bread for a no-waste policy. The casoncelli, representing my roots, are stuffed with broth scraps, juniper-smoked ricotta and Parmesan. The final broth, when drank, cleanses the palate.

With this signature dish I intend to elevate the octopus to its maximum using all parts of it, without any waste. The place where I work, in Tavira, octopus is one of the great treasures that exists, and I intend to make it shine!

My dish is inspired by the similarities between the foothills of the Chilean Andes and the north of Spain, especially Navarre. The freedom of the Chilean quail and the strength of the bull during the San Fermin festival represent the connection between these two distant lands. With local ingredients that must be used to the maximum, this dish brings me closer to home, allows me to discover its potential and motivates me to represent Chilean gastronomy in Navarra and the whole world.

The dish idea combines Spain and Italy's linguistic and cultural ties, rich in shared elements I value. I'll merge Spanish stewed tongue with Italian cold tongue, reflecting my veggie passion. Ingredients like salsify, watercress, wild plants, and roots will be preserved, enhancing the dish and fostering a connection with nature.

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.

What makes a species local, indigenous, alien, invasive, naturalized, or imported to a specific ecology ?How do species, including humans, root in places they are not originally from? I reflect about an invasive specie, the blu crab that over-populates the Lagoon. Reminding us about the colonial history that brought corn from the Americas, I considered the meaning of becoming “naturalized” to local ecologies. I complete by using spontaneous plants that reconnects to the tidal of Venice, halophytes.

My "Ossi di seppia" draws inspiration from Montale's work, where bones, wandering among the waves and seemingly worthless, symbolize a miserable yet significant existential condition. Like the small things in daily life, they conceal intrinsic value and beauty. By using every part of the cuttlefish, even those considered scraps, I aim to showcase their importance and convey the significance of circular cooking to reduce waste and valorise each ingredient.

Panamanian cuisine is a fusion of indigenous, African, Spanish and Asian influences. The Afro-descendant cultures, especially in seafood, and the indigenous heritage of the Guna, Ngäbe-Buglé, Emberá and others, are vital to our culinary identity. Through this dish, I would like to give you a taste of our ethnic heritage. From our indigenous groups to the African slaves, this dish represents a taste of our gastronomic mix.

The dish I have thought of is a reversion of the Christmas dish that is always eaten in my house and all over Venezuela, as it represents my first experiences with the palate. I decided to fuse Venezuelan and Argentinean gastronomy, due to my migration to Argentina when I was young, I also included Asian flavours and products from Mendoza, as they reflect all the experience I have had in the last years of my life. This dish mixes my origins, the history of my life and my passions.

Chile, a narrow strip with more than six thousand kilometres of coastline, is in the south of the world. Every dish reflects the uniqueness of a country where water is essential, from the mountains to the sea. The biodiversity is influenced by the Humboldt Current. My dish, ‘Cordillera, Valle y Pacífico’, combines goat cheese from Cajón del Maipo, chascudo, mote and conger eel with mushrooms. Inspired by my childhood and the tradition of my grandparents, I dedicate this dish to Victor and Ana.

Inspired by the first book of traditional Chinese medicine, "Huangdi Neijing," which states that food is food when eaten on an empty stomach, but medicine when consumed by patients, I have chosen medicinal herbs such as Poria cocos, japonica rice, Gastrodia elata, and Phyllanthus emblica as the main ingredients, complemented by traditional handcrafted tea. This has led to the creation of a pure vegetarian dish, embodying the concept of food and medicine sharing the same origin.

This dish is inspired by my journey across China, from Kashgar to Hami in Xinjiang China, where I gathered inspiration from what I saw, heard, and experienced. It incorporates a variety of Xinjiang ingredients and cooking techniques, expressing my love for the region. I used the spice rub from Xinjiang's traditional whole roasted lamb to slow-cook the Xinjiang Altay lamb eye meat over charcoal, resulting in a flavorful dish.

The dish presented by Alchemist restaurant, calling for a reduction in ocean plastic, has inspired me and made me realize that ocean pollution is not far from anyone. I live in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, a coastal city with abundant seafood resources that is also affected by pollution. Therefore, I hope to use my dishes to raise awareness and urge people to protect the ocean.

Fish and seafood is close to my heart and this is why I chose this as main components. Blue shelled mussels filter our waters and removes nitrogen and phosphorus, which prevents eutrophication and algae concentrations. Mussels doesn’t need any backing or dung. Mine are sourced from the Swedish west coast, by Janne Bark's mussel farms outside Ljungskile. I’ve also chosen to work with Swedish cod, locally and sustainably sourced.

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.

Coming from an island, I strived to do products from there, representing the producers I grew up with. This dish combines products from different social rank (mackerel-langoustine). Some are my background, modest countryside, some are my present ‘palace cuisine’. Married together, proves that there is no rules. Everything can be good. There is no straightforward path — that embodies my life. It is also the style of cuisine I aim to go to: not having anything fixed or pre-decided.

My goal with this dish is to demonstrate my culinary heritage, trying to showcase corn as the main ingredient. Corn is much more than a simple food in Latin America and trying to exalt it from my cuisine is the best way to enhance my background. On the other hand I want to show the great potential Australia has in terms of ingredients. So, with this dish I have decided to make one of the traditional Colombian dishes mixed it up with Australian ingredients.

My dish is based on my culinary journey: I am Indian by birth and I moved to New Zealand when I was 18 and I've been working in Tamaki Makaurau for the last 10 years, surrounded by the ocean. I want to showcase the best of seafood found in the country and also merge it with my Indian heritage in a subtle way by using dried fenugreek leaves with some of the main ingredients found in a lot of Indian food.

Through this dish, I aim to express the elegance and complexity of Australian gourmet cuisine. The combination of duck, plums, and Australian black truffles showcases the country's rich agricultural diversity and culinary potential. The dish pays homage to my grandfather's farm and Australia's ability to produce high-quality, luxury ingredients and its growing reputation in the global gourmet scene.

This dish stems from the global need to change the fine dining concept. I believe that the process of dining in a restaurant should be more educational, interestin and enjoyable for guests, with the help of other arts such as theatrical. With this dish, I will conjure up a performance about Sava Savanović, the first Serbian vampire, and country i came from, with the fact that in dish food will play the main role, where each segment of the dish will tell its own part of the story in this play.

‘Aljotta’ is a traditional Maltese tomato-based fish broth soup. My dish comprises of homely traditional flavours, in part with a little twist and in the other a more technical and modern to it. The importance is ultimately the flavour of the original ‘Aljotta’; as to impart my childhood memory of my first fishing boat trip, which also was the first time eating the soup. It is also a small taste of Malta, our history and the deliciousness in the simplicity of our cooking.

Gastronomy and poetry are some of the most beautiful expressions that human beings have developed to communicate. Through creativity and innovation, they contribute to questioning in an ever-renewed way how we use culture, and our ways of perceiving and interpreting reality. I have valued this union through the concept of Haiku, poems of 3 verses that precisely talk about everyday life and nature, in a specific place and time.

I designed this dish as a homage to my wife and the restaurant we dream of opening which will fuse our two cultures together, NZ and SA, in a fine dining setting. I wanted to pay tribute to the lineage of bakers in my family by serving this dish with a bread, 1/2 Rewena, 1/2 Mosbollejtie, baked together to become one. I chose venison as it reminds me of fond childhood memories of hunting with my family, it's filled with a farce rolled in a South African boerewors spice to further weave our story.

Scallops & samphire are the flavour of the galette I was eating as a kid on Brittany's coast when my family was going to a "crêperie", this is why I have chosen 3 major ingredients: scallops beautiful seafood from Scotland (where I am living), samphire foraged along Scottish coast, and buckwheat reminder of the "galette de blé noir" dish of my childhood. Also by using the entirety of the scallops through the dish I want to express the importance of going toward a zero waste way of cooking.

“Bringing the beauty of this world to the plate” is the message I would like to convey with this ‘pop art’ style dish.My most memorable encounter with the courgette is that of seeding on a courgette farm. This exercise peaked my interest in where produce comes from, how it’s grown and how to best represent that in a dish.The courgette is simple; yet when used correctly, it can add beauty and freshness to a dish.

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.

This dish pays homage to the fishermen and farmers of my hometown, Kerala. Full use of the ingredients grown, farmed, and fished in the region has shaped the cuisine into one that is humble and driven by the people who have been there for generations and for much of this time it hasn’t been showcased in a modern setting. Now in Chicago, I have begun to understand how hospitality and artistic expression can bring a cuisine like this to new audiences and evoke a connection to a foreign cuisine.

Through this dish, I aim to express a harmony of flavors and cultures, celebrating the versatility and richness of plant-based ingredients. The blend of beet root with lactofermented strawberries and blueberries highlights the art of fermentation, an age-old preservation technique. The spices, wine, and agave syrup reflect a fusion of global culinary traditions. Accompanied by the refreshing tomato water and the vibrant foam made of fermented fruits, An example of my culinary identity.

My dish embodies simplicity, honesty, and refinement with three core ingredients: mackerel, dulse, and shiitake. Inspired by my parents' bakery, where simplicity was prized, I aimed to create a refined meal with minimalism at its core. Sustainability was crucial; I sourced locally from Belgium, minimizing the food supply chain and using all by-products to reduce waste. This dish reflects both my culinary ethos and dedication to sustainable practices.

Through this vegetable dish, the idea is to show that a simple product can become a complex and flavorful dish on its own. You can get a range of different flavors and textures through lacto, cooking, or the combination of products.

When someone asks me, what my favorite thing to cook is, I always have to think. In my career I've worked at all stations in the kitchen and therefore I really like to do all kinds of food. I also wanted my dish to be challenge for me and also to be able to show most of my skills. That's why I created this dish. I can show different cooking methods of the parts of the pigeon, and my skills with doughs and vegetables. The whole dish was inspired by thinking about a pigeon in the forest.