Roland Kelemen wins the Hungarian final of the Bocuse d’Or again

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 10. 02. 11:25

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This year, the Hungarian Bocuse d’Or Academy organized the national final of the competition for the tenth time. The competitors tested their skills with catfish, Makó onion and grey beef goulash, among which Kelemen Roland, chef of Hunguest Hotels Sóstó, emerged as the winner, so he can represent our country at the European selection of the world’s most prestigious chef competition in Marseilles next March.

Kelemen Roland

Kelemen Roland probably needs no introduction, he has been on the podium several times at the Hungarian final of the Bocuse d’Or, and he represented our country at the European final in Trondheim and the world final in Lyon last season, where his team won the special award for the best dish both times. He has also successfully participated in the Culinary Olympics and the Expogast World Cup in Luxembourg. His results motivate him to continuously improve and seek new directions in gastronomy – which is why he decided to compete again. This time, Zoltán Vincze, the commis, assisted in his work.

The novelty of this year’s final is that student teams also presented themselves in parallel with the traditional competition. The Hungarian Bocuse d’Or Academy launched the competition with the aim of creating a tradition to support the next generation. A team from Pest County and a team from Fejér County compared their skills. The young people were helped by two renowned chefs, István Volenter and Bence Dalnoki, as mentors, so that the preparation was not only about the competition, but also about future professional development. The two student teams did an excellent job in the task, worked with high-quality work and presented excellent dishes to the jury.

The competition was won by the team from Letenyey Lajos High School, Technical School and Vocational School, with Eszter Németh and Marcel Petrusán in the kitchen. Their training teacher was Gergely Varga, a professional trainer, and István Volenter helped them prepare as a mentor.

Both competitions were supervised by the same culinary and tasting jury. The prepared dishes were tasted by Tiago Sabarigo, András Wolf, János Erdei, Szabina Szulló, Tamás Széll, István Akács, Zsolt Litauszki and Viktor Segal, and the culinary work was scored by Bence Dalnoki, István Volenter, Zsolt Haraszti, Lajos Lutz, Zoltán Danó and Vili Varju.

Szulló Szabina

The Academy once again awarded an excellent chef with a lifetime achievement award at the awards ceremony. This year, the award went to Szabina Szulló, the chef of the two-Michelin-starred Stand Restaurant, who as president helped her team to the podium in the European selection of the Bocuse d’Or in 2016 and 2022.

In his welcoming speech, Zoltán Hamvas, President of the Hungarian Bocuse d’Or Academy, highlighted that Szabina has been working determinedly in Hungarian top gastronomy for more than 33 years, has made invaluable contributions to the gastronomic development of Hungary, and has always followed her own path without compromise under all circumstances, striving for perfection is her basic philosophy.