The Pro Chef of the Year 2021 award saw three of the region’s best chefs battle it out for the highly-coveted title of ‘Pro Chef of the Year 2021’
UAE-based chefs in leadership positions were invited to submit their nomination for the Pro Chef of The Year 2021 category. From these nominations, three of the region’s best chefs were selected by a prestigious panel to compete in a cooking challenge to secure the crown of ‘Pro Chef of the Year 2021’. This mystery box cook-off took place The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management in November 2021.
Read on for a video on the action behind the scenes!
Meet our Finalists
(From L-R): Chef Russell Impiazzi, Sofitel Dubai The Obelisk, Chef Ricardo Gonçalves, Bagatelle Dubai and the winner, Chef Troy Payne, The Pangolin Restaurant & Lounge
The three top chefs went head-to-head at the Chef of the Year cooking competition, creating star dishes with mystery ingredients provided by Casinetto. Each chef had three hours to plan and produce a starter, main and dessert, using a minimum of two items from the mystery box in each course, alongside pantry staples.
The dishes were served to a judging panel of industry experts, including (from L-R): Giacomo Bernardelli, Founder and Managing Director of Casinetto, Michael Kitts, Director of Culinary Arts at The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management and James Knight-Pacheco, the Pro Chef of the Year 2020 winner and Executive Chef at ME Dubai.
To ensure fairness, the competition was a blind tasting wherein the judges scored points for each course out of 10, across criteria such as Creativity, Use of Ingredients, Technique, Presentation and Taste, with a maximum of 150 points to be obtained.
After a noteworthy competition where each chef gave their best, and following tough deliberation, Troy Payne, Head Chef at The Pangolin Restaurant & Lounge, was named The Pro Chef of the Year’s ‘Chef of the Year 2021’!
Dishes
From the Pro Chef of The Year 2021, Troy Payne, The Pangolin Restaurant & Lounge:
From Chef Russell Impiazzi, Sofitel Dubai The Obelisk:
From Chef Ricardo Gonçalves, Bagatelle Dubai:
Take a look at the action behind the scenes!
Thank you to all our sponsors: Casinetto (Mystery Box Sponsor), The Emirates Academy Of Hospitality Management (Pro Chef Of The Year Competition Host) And Renarte (Trophy Sponsor).
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