‘Foodies unite!’ cried Layne Redman, and at The Westin Abu Dhabi Golf Resort & Spa last night they did, to pick Sinju Varghese, chef de cuisine at the Emirates Palace Hotel, as the city’s Young Chef of the Year 2013.
Four finalists cooked four dishes for a panel of professional judges and a ballroom full of amateur food critics.
View Young Chef of the Year 2013 pictures here
Exceptional dishes were created across the board on a night of close culinary competition with just a few points separating 28-year-old Indian chef Varghese from second place.
Narrowly-beaten Cyril Calmet, chef de cuisine at the Shangri-La hotel, was also a finalist at last year’s awards and had been preparing his food since 3:30 in the morning.
Ultimately, however, Varghese took the trophy with a starter of beef chips with a celeriac granola, a salmon snapper broth with tofu and mirin gel, a main course of lamb en croute with courgettes and a squash carrot puree followed by dessert of poached pears and spiced berry sorbet.
Desserts had been popular at the event with Stacy Coxon, who travelled from Dubai after enjoying Time Out Dubai’s Young Chef of the Year Awards, was in raptures over the second runner up Mohammad Issa Ali’s chocolate java cake, calling it ‘the best dessert I have ever had’.
The competition encouraged creativity, as event judge Scott Price, chef patron of Table 9 at the Hilton Dubai Creek hotel, said; ‘you’ve got to be clever and create dishes in your head’.
View Young Chef of the Year 2013 pictures here
That pressure was definitely felt by the first runner up Muhammad Ali Shiddique, junior sous chef at Jumeirah at Etihad Road, who confessed that it was his first time creating his own menu.
We caught up with smiling winner, Sinju Varghese after the results were announced.
How are you feeling?
I can’t express myself. I’m so proud of myself and my team.
Did you expect to win?
This is the first time I have had the confidence to enter something like this, so even being one of the top four finalists was amazing. This year I felt ready to enter, because I was sure of my abilities as a chef.
What does winning mean for you?
It’s something really special. This has just been a whirlwind, the birth of my daughter last week and now winning the competition, I am at a wonderful place in my life.
What did you think of the other chef’s menus?
I thought that there was a really high standard of cooking, the other chef’s menus were full of passion and flavour, and in the end I imagine it was hard for the judges to pick a winner.
Was it hard preparing your own menu?
It was a challenge, but it’s very important to learn from people’s feedback on the food that you create. I had only just returned from vacation, so organising everything in a short space of time was difficult.
Did you enjoy the experience?
It was a wonderful experience, and I am proud to be bringing the trophy back to the Emirates Palace Hotel.
