Regional Finalists 2024-25

Nowadays, Bali is facing a massive shift in landscape and lifestyle due to mass tourism. My biggest concern is the future of our children. What is our legacy? What is my responsibility as a chef for future generations? I want to take my part in preserving our Balinese heritage, our ingredients, our local farmers, our skills, and show that mixing tradition and modernity is possible. This is why I called my dish " Go Local or Go Home ".

Through this dish, I express Japan’s Satoyama culture, a way of life rooted in the coexistence of people and nature. Festivals, prayers for abundant harvests, care for the environments that provide food, and cooperation within rural communities are values deeply embedded in Japanese society. As a chef, I believe cuisine must begin with an awareness of the ecosystems that sustain our ingredients. Satoyama is a philosophy I wish to share with the world and a model for the future of cooking.

Through this dish, I want to convey the wonderful ingredients and food culture of Japan.
We also thought about garnishing the dish with shiso leaves and myoga, which are commonly used in Japan, and adding the aroma of sea bream skin chips and grilled green onions so that the dish would not become boring in terms of texture and flavor.
We also believe that the soup's consistency can be made easier to mix with rice and sea bream by using rice starch or by adding a little density to the soup.

This dish, in a nutshell, represents who I am. Not only are all the main ingredients sourced from directly here in Canada, but also the techniques used I learned (and tweaked) from all the most important restaurants I have worked. It takes humble ingredients like duck and corn and elevates them to a new level of luxury. Lastly it attempts to blur the lines between savoury and sweet dishes with the use of popcorn and shortbread. Its an artful and fun representation of who I am as a chef.

This dish is my brainchild of what my soul would look like on a plate, the mousse of the Meat Beliram is a connection to my roots in Punjab and also how I made the move to Canada by packing just my knives and my clothes. The eel is one of the first ingredients I fell in love with. The morels are the abundant wilderness of Canada and the sauce and kachori lend the child in me with flavor's which I grew up as a child, never wanting to be a chef but later loving every bit of it.

I am originally from China, my cooking philosophy is using French, Italian, and Japanese technique to showcase Chinese favor, modern Chinese food. In Chinese Sichuan cuisine, we will use rabbit as one of the main proteins. One of the most popular dishes in Sichuan cuisine is stir fry rabbit with Sichuan pepper and peanuts. I am using French technique to wrap rabbit meat, Chinese sausage, foie gras to make rabbit ballotine.

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.

I want to combine my styrian heritage, austrian seasonal products, french cuisine and an asian touch.

Venison, in my opinion, is the most sustainable, eco-friendly, healthy and regional meat that exists. It grows and lives sustainably in the wild, foraging naturally in the austrian forest and it´s entirely free from medication and antibiotics.

The decline of traditional inns is a real problem. These establishments tell our culinary story and are an important part of local communities. What happens when no one is left to tell that story? This is exactly where my dish begins. I want to show how beautiful simple and traditional cuisine can be—viewed from a different perspective, but without losing its core values: craftsmanship, tradition, sustainability, and great flavor from great ingredients.

As I grew up in Saint-Raphael, fish soup had an emblematic place in my family. My father, a fish lover, observed changes in the sea ecosystem: pollution, destruction of the biodiversity and diminution of the quantity of fish. We can’t keep our old habits by cooking without thinking about the consequences. I don’t want to forget the taste of Provence so I invented a new recipe that take into account these issues. More ethical ways can be taken to archive the emotional memory of taste.

My dish associates two opposed universe: the "meaty" one from the Chateauneuf farm beef and the iodized one from the cuttlefish and the herring eggs
These three product prepared in their entirety will along the preparation and then degustation respond and feature them self. They will reveal their complexity and the deepness of their taste but still with a strong readability.
A key quest to the essential in the idea that “less it’s more” in this special social and environmental context.

I would like to express a simple message through my dish, the reduction of food waste and pollution. Through my life experiences, between Italy and France, I combined the cultures and some of the traditional dishes, to me close, in one. I talk about classic preparation of both countries revisited on a contemporary way. I use only sustainable food like mackerel (using every part) for responsible fishing and seaweed in substitution of animal proteins. Work local, think global.

500 characters are less than I imagined so I'm retyping everything and trying to be shorter I want to say with this dish that "tutto il mondo è paese" because from an idea of an italian dish (risotto ai frutti di mare), using spanish and mexican products and preparation I'm making a dish that is present in a different way in the three countries (arroz a la tumbada in mexico and paella de mariscos in spain).
As well I choose to use bivalves and seaweed because they are sustainable products.

My dish is inspired by potaje de berros, a traditional Canary Islands watercress stew that embodies the region’s rural cuisine and collective memory. Using Tenerife kid goat and a zero-waste approach, I reinterpret its key ingredients—watercress, gofio, cheese, pickles and broth—through a contemporary lens. The dish celebrates place, seasonality and local producers, showing how humble cuisine can evolve into fine dining without losing its identity or authenticity.

I am a chef who returned to his origins, and the one I want to become proves that flavor, wellbeing and respect for the sea are a single path. I believe food is how we care for one another — for the people we feed and the sea that feeds us. My Basque grandparents fished in Chile, there I found comunity and learned that to cook is to give care. This dish carries that belief: a humble mackerel caught by hook, cooked with modern-tradition technique, nutrients that heal, nothing wasted.

With this dish, I would like to express the concept that the replacement of animal protein with vegetable protein, allows the dish to have an equal taste, thus reducing the environmental impact, being also environmentally friendly. I hope, in this way, to succeed in approaching all food intolerances and pathologies that do not always allow the guest to feel free and involved in the free and varied choice of multiple dishes.

I rapresented violence against woman. Living or cohabiting with someone who exhibits aggressive attitudes and feeling without a way of escape.
Also walk alone, sometimes, could be scare.
During COVID-19 requests for help incresed by 119% and the cage tht I rapresented makes me think of them. Trapped at home.

I began cooking out of necessity, having grown up without a safety net. Then it became a language. Caruggio tells the story of a walk through Sanremo, from the sea to the mountains, along narrow alleyways that bring contrasts together. It uses only ingredients found along this route, chosen for what they are. To me, respecting an ingredient means applying the right heat at the right moment. I want to create a cuisine that is clean, plant-forward and visionary. Not as a trend. As a responsibility.

As a proud young chef from Mexico, I capture my roots using local ingredients, intertwining cultural traditions with global techniques. Inspired by Oaxaca's rich culinary heritage, my dish showcases our identity, drawing from childhood memories. This creation reflects the vibrant flavors of Oaxaca, honoring our traditions and the essence of my hometown.

Through this dish I express my trajectory and the way I created my personality in the kitchen. It has elements from different countries and experiences that have formed me as a chef. It contains elements from Mexico and Panama, because of my nationality, from Italy by virtue of my descent and gastronomic formation and from Japan after the passion I’ve acquired over Japanese cuisine due to my current job. The fusion of them all create a mix of flavors and techniques that represent me.

Through this dish I would like to show the importance of women as bearers of gastronomic tradition. The clay work of the potters, through which this dish was created and inspired. Emphasizing that broths and soups are considered an ancestral food that is part of the primordial baggage of the history of food, forming a perfect symbiosis that becomes food for the body and connects it with the soul.

This dish stemmed from my memory of my hometown. It started with chicken from Hetian Town and that relates to local farms and the whole ecological system. From there, it casts a light onto the Chinese farming and rural society culture.

Poultry is an important element in the dining culture for this city tucked away in the mountains. These Hetian chickens have a wild temperament and were used for imperial chicken fights in the ancient times. The farmers live in the mountains and the chickens roam around freely in the pristine environment feeding on wheat and rice grown on the farm. From my memory, these chickens are capable enough to scale trees and even rooftops.
 

I once read an interview stating that food waste is a fatal flaw in fine dining restaurants. Many ingredients, from purchase to plating, end up being only 50%-70% of their original quantity, with an average of 30% of ingredients being wasted. However, sustainable development is a social responsibility and obligation that we, as the new generation of young chefs, must undertake. At this moment, I utilize various cooking techniques to fully utilize ingredients and minimize waste, aiming to convey my thoughts on sustainable development as a young chef.

Every cooking session brings back Jilin’s New Year dishes: guobaorou, braised eggplant and pork skin aspic. With Western, Japanese and French skills, I reinvent these classics.I sous-vide pork loin coated with puffed quinoa, served with umeshu sauce and prickly-pear cold broth. Eggplant comes braised or charcoal-mashed, while pork aspic simmers in bone stock seasoned with soy, chilli and garlic oil.Hometown taste inspires my fusion innovation as a chef.

We are taught that sacrifice is the only way to perfection, that the expense of people is a normal part of being a chef. That the best produce is from the other part of the world and that waste is an exception for fine dining. I believe that sustainability contains so much more than just local vegetables. Its also about leadership, a good working environment and treating ourselves with respect. Respect the people, respect the produce, respect the process. Respect the world.

Emmanuel Pillon chef of the Louis XV said : « Nothing is lost, everything is transformed. » In my dishes I would like to transmet this kind of spirit. We can use all the left over, all the skin and make a really good dishes. I choose to cook vegan become since 8 months I grow in this environnement and I found a really équilibre of technic and flavor. This kitchen let me really grow and open many doors for fermentations and taste.

With this dish, I want to show that worldly flavors can be achieved with products from our own country or region, promoting sustainability and supporting local farmers and suppliers. This dish is entirely based on vegetables and fruits, and contains no animal products. By doing this, we challenge ourselves and demonstrate that the same flavors can be achieved without using animal ingredients.

When I arrived in Australia, native ingredients and coastal produce changed the way I saw food. Growing up in a coastal village, my family taught me to "keep the root" harvest with respect and leave enough for nature to continue its cycle. Through coral trout, whole fish utilisation, and coastal ingredients, I reconnect with these memories while expressing my Asian background through an Australian landscape. This dish reflects the chef I hope to become: one who cooks with respect and connection.

As an immigrant, moving from South Korea to growing up in Ireland, one of the challenges was the cuisine. I went from having rice with lots of different sides (banchan) such as kimchi, to having a meat and two vegetables. One of my earliest food memory is going to my friends house and trying bacon and cabbage. I remember the boiled salty pork and the sautéed cabbage with mustard and some steamed potatoes with butter on top. So I wanted to do a dish that combined the two different cultures.

The story of the dish tells my story with the cuisine. I use a culinary technique from each chef I have worked with, while adding my personal touch that I associate with the products of my native country. Which gives a textured dish, full of color with this full-bodied, powerful, fragrant juice which gives character to the dish. This dish testifies to my love for my profession, the ups, and downs, the sacrifices I have had to make for the sole purpose of living my passion.

My dish is my interpretation to the classic Borscht. I took my mother’s recipe and disassembled it and combined it with the local ingredients and flavor’s. The dish itself served on plates that passed in my family in inheritance.
My goal was to make a dish that combines two cultures, memories from my childhood and also has minimum waste. I tried to use all the parts of all the ingredients.

With this dish I want to see how far I can go using very few elements. One piece of turbot, one circle of sorrel and two small garnishes are arranged almost like a diagram, but the flavours are intense, acidic and slightly fermented. My goal is to cook with restraint: to strip away decoration, focus on structure and texture, and learn to say more by putting less on the plate.

The inspiration behind this dish stems from deeply rooted memories of my childhood visits to my grandmother's home. At the heart of her cooking was her rooster dish, a testament to resourcefulness and culinary creativity born out of necessity. In the old times, when resources were scarce, my grandmother relied on every part of the rooster to create the family meals. Even though the dish is now adapted to fine dining techniques, I am transported back to those moments, the essence of home.

The inspiration comes from my experience in Tokyo and the memory of my childhood. I’d like to present a wonderful marriage between the ingredients from mountain and ocean, and I believe humble ingredients could also be the star. I love both French cuisine and Chinese cuisine and I believe all different cuisines have something in common. So I'd like to present some Chinese poaching technique, and the way we make chicken broth. It would be a French contemporary with a Chinese twist.

“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.

Having spent so much time designing courses through local and expensive ingredients, I decided to go back to what I grew up eating. Born in South Africa and raised in the UK, a staple of our family meals was South African and this dish is inspired by the spice of the curry. The soft custard and fruits provide textures and softness through out.

This dish represents my love for classic techniques and exploring new flavors while minimizing waste and creating a unique dining experience. I fell in love with Country Ham while living in Charleston, but we never had a good use for all the scraps. Substituting the Country Ham scraps for the more classic dried shrimp or scallops creates a slightly smokier XO that bridges Chinese cuisine and the American South, which is important to me- bridging gaps between cultures through food.

For me, this dish embodies my journey as a chef and pays homage to my Appalachian heritage. Being raised in North Carolina, pork is our primary livestock. And these ingredients grow locally in the mountain town where I grew up. For me, bringing refined French techniques that I struggled to learn, to Rustic Appalachian cuisine showcases a new perspective on my home and my community. Highlighting the beautiful flavors of the ingredients and delivering me back to my Nana's house for Sunday supper

“Pozole or Chawanmushi...?” reflects my journey as a chef. Through pozole, corn, and Japanese technique, I express where I come from in Mexico, the kitchens that shaped me, and the direction of my career. The dish blends memory, discipline, and creativity into one experience, honoring tradition while exploring a more personal and modern culinary identity.

When I started to create this dish a lot of people told me not to do it because it contains too much work.
So this explains my stubbornness and love for the work. The sweet potato also became my personal logo.

I want to express that you can make things very complex without a million technics. sometimes a pure product has his own complexities.

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.

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.