Competition for future's best chefs

Top international student chefs compete to create gourmet meals for ground-breaking microwave packaging.

 Rising chefs from four of the world’s
top culinary schools competed in the inaugural International Culinary
Schools Contest created by the International Chefs’ Circle Jan.
19-21 at Sealed Air’s new Packforum® Americas, a
28,000-square-foot permanent customer care center.

Formed in 2007 under the sponsorship of
Sealed Air, the International Chefs’ Circle (ICC) is a group of
highly respected chefs from across the globe. The organization’s
goal is to promote a high quality approach in preparing meal
solutions for the retail and foodservice markets.

The contest showed that the microwave
is an appropriate means of reheating gourmet meals and featured
student representatives from top schools in four countries: Johnson &
Wales in Providence, R.I.; The Universidad de las Americas Puebla in
Mexico; Le Lycee Hotelier de Strasbourg in France; and the Culinary
Educational Program in Thailand.

The recipe that won first prize was
Blue Fin Tuna with Achiote Condiment, Pancetta Polenta from The
Universidad de las Americas Puebla. Thai Pork Satay from the Culinary
Educational Program was the runner up while Salmon Steak with Big
Prawns and Cannellonis with Shellfish Sauce from Le Lycee Hotelier de
Strasbourg rounded out the judges’ top three.

As part of the contest, the four
schools each created three gourmet dishes that were packaged and
heated in Cryovac® Simple Steps® microwaveable packaging. A
panel of 12 judges – including eight world-renowned chefs and
chaired by Marcus Samuelsson, a recent candidate for White House chef
and founder of New York’s acclaimed Aquavit restaurant – then
judged the recipes based on a number of categories, including taste,
cost-to-quality ratio, simplicity, creativity and how well the food
plated.