Regional Finalists 2024-25

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.

My favorite childhood dish is Assam Laksa. To me, the beauty of this dish is the combination of flaky fish melding together with the herbaceous, acidic, spicy, sweet umami broth with nuggets of larger sized fish meat. My version of Assam Laksa utilizes homemade traditional rempah enhanced with fish garum & fish-bone stock & laksa leaf oil with a mosaic made of Kingfish and Farce using the fish trimmings served with Ginger Flower Sorbet and Fish Skin-Yuba Tuile topped w Native Herbs and Salsa.

I want to present my Cantonese cuisine background. I have four years experience at various traditional Chinese restaurants. Dim sum and traditional Chinese food are central to my identity. I aim to showcase Chinese cooking and beautiful local dried seadfood by reconstructing classic dishes into fine dining plates. Lastly, I want to convey that culinary boundaries are blurring as techniques are shared globally. We can learn from other cuisines to achieve higher culinary excellence.

In the kitchen, we throw away the unloved and unsaleable offal of lamb. Stunned by this vision of non-valuation, I wanted to honor it. I drew inspiration from the wild northern Canadian landscape that became my home 9 years ago, and from the terroir of my native southwest France, which brings back warm memories. With my dish, I want to enhance the value of this country-style cuisine, with a modern twist that's both technically raw and delicate, to give offal back its nobility.

I invent this plate in honor of the hard work of my father and my mother. My father always work in the cereal world and this is a very hard work. He gives is life to this work to make shure we miss nothing. I also put carrot because when i was young my mother have a big garden with a lot of carrots and i dont really like them at this time. Now this is one of my favorite vegetable. Also the duckling is my favorite animal proteine so that’s why i wan’t to serve them. I hope you let me show you!

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 this dish, I want to express the meeting of Mexico and Germany, two places that have shaped my journey as a chef. Through white asparagus, hoja santa, Mexican pumpkin seeds, corn and mustard, I portray a shared field where tradition, identity and nature coexist. “Dos Mundos, Un Campo” speaks of growth, cultural exchange and respect for ingredients, showing how different roots can come together to create something new without losing their essence.

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.

Tikka Masala - a dish that started my culinary journey. It captivated me as a chef's apprentice with its layers of flavor, the first dish I mastered and the one that won my wife's heart, as the first dish I cooked for her. For this competition, I present it in two ways: whole, to enjoy it fully with all flavours present. But alongside it, a deconstructed version with all elements still present and polished, presented to highlight its individual mastery.

Two fond memories from growing up was the excessive amount of celariac my grandma used to produce in her garden, and sailing off the west coast of Scotland and stopping off at some of the finest seafood shacks in the world eating some beautiful scallops . That's why the dish came to mind for my signature dish.

I want to focus on traditional Rajasthani hunter-style cooking by showcasing grains, vegetables of the region. It reflects the time when kings used to go out hunting for weeks, they would carry minimal spices and grain and they would cook the hunted animal in the pit. My dish is surrounded by that idea but with my execution.

As a Korean chef in London, this dish reflects my identity. In this diverse city, culinary boundaries dissolve, blending local UK ingredients with staples from my homeland. Signature ingredients like kimchi, Korean miso paste, Jeju bracken, and Makgeolli create a fusion that's both familiar and innovative. This dish also showcases the seafood expertise I've developed as a fish chef. From precise techniques to selected marinades, every element shows my dedication and passion for seafood cuisine.

I would like to pay tribute to all the places I have lived, thanks to my family coming from many backgrounds. I chose a fish that I love. I think it’s a shame that most of the time not all the part of the fish are used.Food waste is something chefs all around the globe should fight and this is why I chose not to cook the filet. Deliciousness is everywhere.You will find everything I love in
the three cuisines: French, Lebanese and Ivorian.I wanted to show and share the cuisine close to my heart...

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 see cuisine as a means of transmission. It brings pleasure while questioning our relationship with living things. This dish embodies that belief. The Grise du Vercors, a breed preserved from standardisation, is used in its entirety. Guided by phronesis, I seek thoughtful choices rooted in its terroir. Each element conveys a simple idea: value lies in what we choose to preserve, despite time and constraints.

My dream as a chef is nothing more than to be able to take my island to the highest level of gastronomy, being happy along the way. I have expressed it in this dish, using figs, lactose and corn, which is what the pigeon feeds on during its life, making 100% use of it and accompanying it with the three most typical plants of the island, which are fennel, rosemary and salicornia. With this dish I want to show that with a few simple ingredients and your own roots you can achieve a dish of great quality.

I chose this dish because it tells the beginning of a journey—both a personal one and a real one. It starts with the prawn ravioli, the first recipe I discovered when I joined AS: a single bite that captures the full flavour of the prawn in a liquid ravioli. It continues with the chawanmushi and tableware inspired by our trip to Taiwan, and ends with Japan and Thailand, celebrating the simplicity of raw ingredients and their countless teas.

This dish was born from my desire to reinterpret one of Aragon’s iconic ingredients and bring it into the world of fine dining. Aragonese trout is at the heart of the dish, reflecting my commitment to the region and its producers. My goal is to show that true culinary luxury lies in celebrating local origins, elevating regional ingredients and giving them the recognition they deserve through technique, respect and creativity.

The First Step tells the story of a personal return. After years spent moving between kitchens, countries and experiences, I realized that growth does not always come from going further, but sometimes from stopping and rebuilding. Through the five fundamental tastes, this dish expresses comfort, tension, transformation, maturity and balance. It is a tribute to my territory, my identity and the foundations of the chef I want to become.

Through this dish, I want to express a dialogue between tradition and contemporary cuisine. Filindeu represents memory and ritual, while the clarified PGI lamb broth enhances its purity. Juniper-smoked eel with sea fig introduces a wild, marine note, creating a balance between land and water. It is a cuisine rooted in identity that looks to the future through respect for its origins.

I believe as human being that we are very sick. Imagination and language is what did separated humans from animal.
Today peoples are not conscious of who we really are and the consequence is that we create confusion, trends and bad ego is the protagonist in this planet. Today we try to fix this planet by using one word, sustainability.
who really know the significant of that word and who first went to see inside of the most scary place of this world? I think it is better to start from us...

“Mackerel, plantain and coconut” refers to the day to day life of people living in humble seaside towns in Costa Rica, it highlights the value of these undervalued products and a perspective on a simpler way of living where waste is not an option.In these areas zero waste is not a trend but a viable way to feed an entire family. And instead of seeing it as something that limits it can be a source of inspiration for creating unique preparations and finding ways to enhance their flavour.

Alma Patagonia is a creation that captures the soul of Chile´s southern territory. It is a dish that intertwines delicacies from diverse ecosystems, which vary from the depths of the sea, to lush fertile forests. This blend pays tribute to a culture that bases its cuisine on the available ingredients that Mother Earth provides, which must be used fully. Pure nature permeates through a combination of flavors and textures, and surprises the palates of adventurous gourmands.

Punta Hermosa is my home, where my father taught me to read waves and honor the ocean, shaping my identity through Peruvian biodiversity and Italian heritage into my cooking. Today, seeing bottom trawling devastate our sea breaks my heart. This dish is an emotional wake-up call, a zero-waste creation that brings my childhood to the table. It connects my history to an urgent mission: inspiring people to protect the Peruvian sea that gives us everything, the same sea woven into my identity.

This dish is my tribute to traditional Huaiyang cuisine, interpreted through the culinary language I know best. As a Western chef, I combine Chinese techniques and heritage with familiar Western methods, from consommé clarification to risotto emulsification and ballotine. Rather than reinventing tradition, I aim to create a respectful dialogue between cultures, showing that curiosity and craftsmanship can bring new vitality to classic flavours.

There are many ways to cook chicken in Guangzhou, and as the saying goes: “It is not a feast if you don’t have chicken”. This dish is originally a Cantonese-style crispy roast chicken. Chicken dries out easily because of its low fat content, and traditional methods of roasting or frying at high temperature are not healthy enough, so I use modern low-temperature slow-cooking cooking methods to process traditionally marinated chicken. This resulting chicken is not only tender and juicy, but also nutritious and healthy.

The chicken is stuffed with sweet pea paste and shrimp paste. This is a technique called "stuffing" in Chinese cuisine. One or several ingredients are made into puree and filled with another ingredient. During the heating process, the flavors of various ingredients integrate yet retain their own characteristics. The sweetness of the sweet pea puree and the saltiness of the shrimp bring a fuller taste experience to the chicken. I reduce the use of condiments, and unique original flavor of the ingredients themselves become more memorable.
 

This dish is created based on the idea of cultural fusion achieved through exploring and respect diverse national cultures. General Tso’s Chicken is the most successful American Chinese dish invented by Peng Chang-kuei. My personal experience mirrors chef Peng’s journey oppositely. I used my knowledge, Chinese culture, European cuisine technique re-define this American-Chinese classic to Chinese flavor, bring it back to home. Two parts of the dish telling a story about who is General Tso.

There are fewer fish in Lillebælt (the sea outside my restaurant) and this is partly due to the environmental problems we have created for ourselves.
Fortunately, we still have lobsters in the sea and we have an elderly fisherman who brings us the best lobsters. So this dish is my way of showing and helping to remember what Lillebælt means to us. The goal is to get everyone to respect the environment and the world's oceans again, otherwise we will destroy some of the most amazing things we have.

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.

I would like to just honestly share my idea for this competition. I understand that not everyone that applies will participate however it does not mean I could try and share my journey to San Pellegrino, perhaps worldwide.
This dish represents my memories of my grandmother that I wanted to give my twist on. I applied lessons that I learned throughout my culinary journey that hopefully tells the story and what I am still willing to learn.

I was born and raised in Sichuan, China. With my professional training from Le Cordon Bleu in Australia, I found Australia can be a bridge of combination of two completely different flavours and cultures. I have considered South Australia as my second home, and I love the wide range of fresh ingredients and indigenous products. I want to bring the authentic Sichuanese flavour to South Australia and create my own food style inspired by modern western cuisine in the short future.

Nalli Nihari is a hearty poor man's dish from Lucknow, India, wherein lamb shanks are slow cooked overnight served with roti bread. This is one of those rare dishes that traveled from the homes of commoners to the royal palaces. Taking this idea, I have presented the dish as a lamb leg wellington, showcasing the journey of the dish similar to my own. Keeping technique and flavour at forefront, I believe this is who I am. The future of cuisine is how tastefully one can embrace their heritage.

"My Mother's Tze Char" is a tribute to my late mother's dream of feeding the hungry. By transforming humble ingredients into a rich tapestry of flavours and textures, I hope to embody her generosity and commitment to making a difference. Each bite pays homage to memories of home-cooked meals shared with her and celebrates the fusion of my Singaporean, Teo Chew, Hokkien/Cantonese and Australian upbringing. This dish speaks to her belief in the power of food to nourish both body and soul.

The dish is an ode to my hometown Acre, a mixed city of Jews & Arabs, located by the Sea. I Combine haute cooking techniques and local ingredients with classic Jewish recipes, creating a fusion that reflects my hope for peace in our region. I’m using blue crab as the main ingredient, an invasive local species. Diluting it, helps to the restoration of the local maritime ecosystem. It’s presented in the dish in 4 ways, expressing zero waste and Nose to Tail principles with local ingredients.

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.

My dish celebrates the tradition and sustainability of the Vipava Valley. Jota made from Turnip Tropinka, served in aluminum dishes, carries the flavors and memories of the harvest. The humble Turnip Tropinka symbolizes simplicity and homeliness. Accompanying it is the skin sausage Krotegin, bread made from grape seed flour, and smoked grape seed oil. The dish blends traditional and modern techniques. Each bite evokes memories of family, vineyards, and values, connecting the past with the future

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.

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.

Growing up in Chile, I’ve always appreciated the sea. With over 6,000 kilometers of coastline, Chile introduced me to the power of fresh fish and seaweed. Working in fine-dining restaurants in Paris and New York, I’ve learned that the fish industry also leaves an abundance of food waste. With this dish, I am using almost every element of my favorite fish: the Shima-aji. I’d like to inspire people to begin a new relationship with food to appreciate all that a fish has to offer.

My cuisine is driven by the desire to challenge the traditional hierarchy of the plate. With this dish, the vegetable becomes the centre of the narrative — not as an alternative to protein, but as the primary expression of flavour. Through different techniques, I explore depth, texture, and emotion. The kingfish takes on a supporting role, bringing salinity and umami without dominating. Every part of the ingredient is valued to create a balanced dialogue between elements.

I started my career as engineer, then 3 years ago, I choose to travel and work as a cook. My cuisine was molded by that. I discovered many cultures and peoples that inspired me because they were so proud to share food that they grow in their environment for years. Back home, I want to do the same. Cook a Sunday meal that brings back childhood memories with my grandparents in Moselle, a poor farmer's dish: La Potée Lorraine. With only local product and twist it with my favorite, Mirabelle Plum.

Expressing the connection between the interior of Portugal and the Atlantic coast. Iberian black pork represents the land and my rural roots, while the clams and Bulhão Pato reflect our maritime heritage. Bread at the table can never be absent and is always there to soak up the sauce.

By combining traditional flavours with contemporary techniques, I seek to honour the ingredients and culture that have shaped me as a chef, showing that Portugal guides me in every sense: personal, culinary and gastronomic.