Regional Finalists 2022-23

My Dish, from a village by Kerala's backwaters, is inspired by where the historic spice route shaped our rich cultural heritage. I aim to BREAK THE SHELLS of outdated mud crab cooking methods, moving beyond traditional curries. I believe every part of the crab can be utilised wisely akin to other types of meat. My signature dish combines my grandmother's traditional flavour with innovative, sustainable twists inspired by my culinary travels in Southeast Asia, highlighting Kerala ingredients.

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 ".

I deconstructed Korean traditional dish 'Sinsello'.I tried to improve the limitations of traditional cooking methods by introducing modern techniques based on my experience working in different countries. I made this dish by composing it with the three elements of Korean traditional meal soup, rice, and banchan, side dishes. In addition, in consideration of sustainability, all ingredients are used for cooking so that no ingredients are thrown away after cooking is finished, ‘0 waste cooking’.

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.

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.

Growing up in a multicultural household in Canada exposed me to diverse cuisines, fostering a deep appreciation for Canada's melting pot of cultures. My dish draws inspiration from my favourite childhood dishes, Cantonese braised pork and abalone, and Vietnamese Banh Mi, combined with my time spent in some of Canada's top restaurants, I crafted a dish merging Chinese, European, and Vietnamese flavours. I believe that this fusion embodies Canada's cultural richness on a 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.

With my dish I wanted to share my roots, the ingredients that I took for it are using daily in my country, and they are not expensive but when you take the time and the correct way to cook them you can create something incredible and delicious. I wanted to proof that our tradition and our Gastronomie has so much to offer and now is the time to bring it in the next level without to forget the Origin of the typical food.

This Dish is my Handwriting, it is all the experiences I collected over the years in every kitchen I worked, starting from what my mother cooked for me when I was a child. My Grandma created many dishes with offals, and that was the inspiration for my ragout. I Love to make some old traditional dishes in a new modern way with a touch of Asian style.

Through this dish I wanted to put at the center of the plate a region which is rich with simple products. Sturgeon is not usually valued for its meat but for its caviar, it is not an easy fish to work, but I wanted to put it in the spotlight and use the caviar to season it only , give him back what belongs to him, with respect for the products and the producers.

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.

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...

Kitchen and gastronomy are my life since I was young. I move to Açores , I fell in love with the gastronomy of the region and I want to try to bring and mix the oldest traditions with new technics, new vision with my personal touch , in this way I hope to put Açores gastronomy in the map , be a reference in the culinary world . Must part of the ingredients are local.
I would like to contribute , so that traditions are not forgotten, preserve and promote the azorean traditions

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.

With this proposal, what I am trying to do is make the most of a product of such quality as hake. Hake is one of the most consumed foods in Spain by the most humble families. In this dish I use all parts of the hake to avoid throwing waste in the trash. The garnishes are also made with cheap products simulating how poor families would make them. The dish has three preparations using a different part of the hake in each of them.

My dish showcases the biodiversity of Alta Langa using every part of the lamb, emphasizing sustainability and respect. Combining tradition and innovation, it draws inspiration from historical local recipes. This dish reflects a deep connection with the land, honoring the region's culinary heritage and presenting it in a modern, creative way.

The recipe I propose represents my path: past, present and future.The eel is the most convivial ingredient of my homeland, cooked by a grandmother who thanks to it was able to gather everyone around a table. present in my Sardinia, worked and structured manages to give new variations. The bittersweet represents my present, the combinations, the olfactory references and above all intrigue with the taste, are the pillars of my current cuisine.

I chose baby goat, because in addition to liking it a lot, it was the first animal I cooked in my first work experience, we used to stew it with potatoes without any knowledge of the various cuts of meat, it was cut into pieces and cooked in a pot. With this dish I would like to encourage many young people like me who come from experiences like mine, that with study and perseverance you discover other ways of presenting a cut or an animal in general.

A fufu portrait is the story of the Riquelme’s, my family from my mother’s side. In all our gatherings we’ll come together around this delicious soup made from fish head, coconut milk, curry, and root vegetables. Why just the head? Because the rest of the fish we pickled it in our family’s escobish.
As a kid, it was beautiful to see all my aunts having fun around those pots trying to feed a battalion. For me fufu and escobish represent the strong bond between my kin and the roots of my people.

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.

In my childhood, my grandparents used to have Sunday family lunches and the dish I remember the most is the tongue in sauce, served with onion and coconut sauce. In my village we always accompanied the main course with bananas, even soups. That's why my interpretation was inspired by these Sundays with the family. I believe in local products and tradition, raising the level of the products of my village with modern techniques without losing the traditional flavour.

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.
 

The idea of the dish is from my hometown, Xinjiang, which is famous for its tasty lamb. The sheep live in the mountains where the sea-buckthorn and pleurotus grow. To bring the scenery of my hometown, I put them together in the plate. Besides, I also want to introduce the diet and cooking culture to more people in the world. We hardly waste any part of an animal as a respect of the nature, and cook each part separately to make the best use of it. Thrift and sustainability are notably important in this age, I wish I could arouse more attention on them.

The inspiration for this dish came from my hometown: Ningbo, Zhejiang. There is a dish in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province called Stir-Fried Rice Cake and White Crab. The white rice cake on the plate is the original slice of rice cake with ginger oil brushed on it. Under the white rice cake are crab meat, chive, tarragon, crab paste egg meringue, and white crab bisque. The snack in the upper left corner is another dish inspired by hometown: bean curd skin-wrapped yellow croaker. I replaced the yellow croaker with crab legs and sprinkled the tomato puree powder from the Bisque making process. This dish is from my hometown, but it is presented in a way that is not traditional. I believe this presentation method can be accepted by more people.

I'm from Lapland, where reindeer is a big part of the culture. With my signature dish, I want to show how diverse and wonderful meat reindeer is and combine it with international flavors. I lived in Lebanon for a year and wanted to bring flavors inspired by the Middle East alongside northern flavors. The dish is inspired by the mindscape of smoke over the swamp filled with berries, mixed with the scents of heather and angelica. At the end of the landscape stands a reindeer on the forest's edge.

This dish focuses on solder fish which is one of the largest food sources for many fish species in the ocean. also that is hardly used in our gastronomic. more focused on Nordic ingredients and history with a mix of classic and modern cooking techniques.

The idea behind the dish is to connect the Bulgarian and Nordic cuisine through common ingredients and procedures. The lamb is common for Bulgaria in Easter and this is written deep into the culture. The piece is either cooked on open fire or braised for long hours, and this is why I use both techniques to represent the original way of cooking lamb, from back in the days. The garnishes representing modern way salad, done by my grandmother, as well as flavorful, creamy fricassee served back home.

This dish is influenced by a region of India called Kashmir. It is inspired by its rich culture, cooking style and ingredients that grow around there. Through this dish, I want to express how influences of different countries and cultures has created the rich history of Kashmir. Complexity in the concept, simplicity in the execution is what that I want this dish to cry out. Exploring deep into their culture, taking inspiration and applying my own creativity and style has formed this idea.

I am pleased to present a new dish that highlights some of the extraordinary ingredient we are fortunate to have in Australia, ingredients that many people may not even be aware of. This culinary creation features various cuts of lamb, each prepared using distinct techniques that enhance their unique flavours and textures. My inspiration for this dish stems from my childhood growing up on my grandfathers farm in rural Queensland.

"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 story behind this plate starts with a deer and pumpkin. Because I want to take every chance to make my own home grown plants, last spring I planted pumpkin seeds at the edge of the forest, 50 meters from my restaurant. One morning when I walked to my pumpkin field to check up with my ripe pumpkins, I saw that one had a bite taken off. I knew that there has been a deer eating my pumpkins. That is why I decided to connect three main ingredients: Deer, pumpkin and mushrooms. This is my story.

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.

Through “The story of Cod” I wanted to give a modern twist to a traditional Greek recipe and products that are a part of every table in Greece. The goal was to showcase Greek gastronomic culture through a combination of tradition and modernity. Wanting to highlight the quality of Greek products, I chose to include ingredients found all over Greece. The message I wanted to convey was that complexity can occur through simple things and that we should get inspired by our roots and history.

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 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.

This dish is all about a recreation of a happy memory growing up and getting a nostalgic feeling. Cooking and food to me is all about a mixture of new discovery and connecting to a different place, a different time, a memory, a feeling. When I was growing up my mother would take me to my nanny's place and she would always be in the kitchen making something. Two standout dishes I remember always helping her with were her Veranicki's which are a Russian perogy and borscht. We would sit for hours chopping vegetables, stuffing veranickis, and spending time together at her table. The recipe for the dough is her fathers recipe and I wanted to do a bit of a modern take on the classic dough and by adding elements of borscht through dill, beetroots, and creme fraiche throughout the dish. The duck parts of the dish are a more recent memory of moving half way around the world to come work in London at The Ritz Hotel. One of the most memorable dish's that we serve at The Ritz is the Duck a la Presse. The theater and level of service makes this more than just a dish, but creates an everlasting memory to anyone who would order it. Even the people around would remember it, it's so special.

This dish is a story and reflection of my life as a chef;
Typically Banchan (Korean side dish) is a variety of small dishes accompanying a main dish generally reflecting the area they come from. Each Banchan will reflect a a moment in my life through places that I have travelled as well beliefs found along the way whilst maintain my rules and ethics of clean and fair food that’s locally sourced in a sustainable way.
The Six Core Values of my Food
Fire, Clean, Delicious, Refined, Innovative, Tec

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.

My intention was to use every piece of an often-overlooked ingredient, prepare it in a variety of ways, and build depth with fermented products. Leek hearts were steamed and marinated, more fibrous leaves were braised for pasta filling, inner leaves were made into a mousseline with leftover quail egg whites, the leek tops were made into an oil, a few leaves were fried to make leek hay, and the remaining scraps were made into an ash to color the pasta dough. Paired with miso, amazake, and shoyu

“Encouragement” is the theme of my dish, where ingredients, methods and cooking processes reflect the people, who at first glance might seem to be the simplest ones, those hidden behind the scenes. As in life itself, sometimes those elements need a little push to get them on stage, making them realize that they too can reach its fullest explendore.

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.

With this first course I wanted to create a link between land and sea, revisiting a typical preparation of my country, the porchetta. I am a lover of the sea and I wanted to make a preparation that combines the two in a modern way. Combining these also with pasta, it can never be missing in an Italian lunch. Tradition and innovation come together respecting the raw material.