After a gruelling six days, travelling to four cities for four rounds of cooking, Tham Jiajun Mathew of Singapore's At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy has won the Young Chef Olympiad, an international culinary competition whose third edition was organised in India.The competition, hosted by International Institute of Hotel Management (IIHM), had chefs from 45 countries showcasing their culinary prowess.Andrew Ou Kai Peng of Malaysia's Taylors University took the second place, while Selah Schmoll of the Canadian Food And Wine Institute, Niagara College was placed third. Puja Mishra of IIHM, representing India, took home the trophy for the best cooked vegetarian dish."IIHM is a front-runner in innovation and development of human resource in the Indian hospitality industry," said jury chairman David Foskett during the finale.
Foskett is the writer of the Culinary Bible "Practical Cookery"."Events like this are truly appreciated globally in times of such turbulence when hospitality and humanness is the call of the hour," he added.Among those present at the finale were the principal judge, Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, the technical judges, Chef Ranveer Brar and Chef Abhjeet Saha, food critic Karen Anand and Chef Boris Leung of Hong Kong.Everyone was on their feet when versatile performer Shane Hyrapiet came on stage and belted out international and Bollywood songs. Young Chef Olympiad Mascot Judge and MasterChef Junior Season 2 Winner Logan Guleff also got on the stage to shake a leg with the other participants.