Tasting Kitchen

food champions
an egg sounds simple but it is hard to pull
off. You have to get the timing exactly right,”
says Asian Chairman of Escoffier Robert
Fontana when asked why these dishes were
selected to test the young chefs. “They also
have to know how to prepare an artichoke
perfectly, how to fillet a fish. Escoffier set
all this out in his Guide. These chefs have
to study him and know the traditional techniques
backwards and forwards.”
Now, the four remaining contestants
must prepare a perfect steak, served medium
rare, with a juicy center done nicely pink
and the outside cooked just right to produce
a dark caramelized crust. The steak
is served with a béarnaise sauce, a classic
Escoffier recipe requiring the chefs to work
with steady hands as they combine egg yolks
with a reduction of vinegar and tarragon and
then add clarified butter over slow heat – get
it wrong and the sauce may not cohere or fail
to achieve the perfect creamy consistency.
The scent of searing beef wafts over to
the audience as the judges take their seats.
There is a strict time frame. Eyck is unrelenting
on punctuality. “Chefs need to make
food when guests want it – not when they
feel like it. It’s absolutely essential to get the
48
| TK | flavor dna
timing right. One of the important things to
factor in when cooking steak, is the amount
of time the meat needs to rest before serving.
The muscle fibers in the meat contract and
you need to give them time to relax again, so
the meat is tender to eat.”
The chefs slice the meat and hands
shake with nerves as they finish their plates.
Macau’s chef whisks his béarnaise to a glossy
thickness, tastes and pours. Vietnam’s chef,
the only woman remaining in the competition,
drags a spoonful of jus in a perfect line
across her plate. The dishes are brought out
and presented to the chefs who share a plate
between two. The first thing they do is to
check the warmth of the plates to ensure
the food has been served piping hot. Their
faces are stern as they sniff, prod and chew
the meat. Spectators and competitors look
on anxiously.
The contest doesn’t end with the steak.
The final hurdle is for the chefs to prove their
pastry-making skills. “Pastry chef is actually a
separate discipline,” explains Eyck, himself a
pastry chef. “But all chefs need to know how
to make basic desserts to a high standard.”
The dish the contestants are preparing
for their tough audience is a tarte flan aux
pommes a la bataliere – a layered confection
of pastry, sliced apples and creamy rice pudding
topped with a delicate meringue. As the
contestants set to work, the open kitchen
fills with the sweet fragrance of apples frying
gently in butter and spicy cinnamon.
The apple tarts are paraded past the
judges, then sliced and presented for tasting.
The judges are looking for taste and
texture, for a fine balance between the crumbly
pasty, the silky meringue, the apples with
just enough but not too much cinnamon,
and the sweet nubbly texture of the rice.
South Korea’s tart is producing murmurs of
approval. “Nicely golden,” says one judge.
“He’s put just the right amount of rice pudding
on top,” says another. Tempting aromas
tease the audience and everybody watches
the judges as they taste and think and take
notes, before retiring to a back room to discuss
their findings.
The four finalists are pale-faced and jittery
after a solid three hours of hard and
focused cooking. “When I am at work I am
part of a team,” says Chris Wong, Hong
Kong’s entrant. “I can ask other people in the
team for advice and help. But in a competition
like this I am all on my own in a strange
kitchen.” They all admit to nerves and to
their great desire to claim the Young Talent
Trophy and to represent Asia while competing
at the global final in France, where the
great Escoffier once reigned.
Finally the judges appear to announce a
winner. South Korea’s Lee Yon Yong has done
it with his perfectly balanced tart, which
perfectly embodied the light refinement of
Escoffier’s classic recipe.
“I cannot believe that I am the victor of this
competition. I just used traditional cooking
skills,” says the champion. He looks surprised
but beams proudly. “My coach told me
to focus on taste and basic skills. I know my
cooking doesn’t use enough salt, so I taste it.”
And how will he prepare for the global
final in France?
“I’ll just keep practicing over and over.
Competitions really stimulate my mind. I
love this one.”