France Wears IIHM's Young Chef Olympiad 2019 Crown

KOLKATA, February 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --

Six days, four cities and three thrilling rounds later, on the evening of 2nd February, 2019, France was crowned winner of the IIHM International Young Chef Olympiad 2019. The winners were announced at the end of a colourful and grand closing ceremony befitting the standard of the Young Chef Olympiad, held at Nicco Park in Kolkata. Cyrene Randrianasolo, a student of Albert de Mun Hotel and Catering School, beat 49 other nations and was declared winner of the fifth edition of the world's biggest culinary extravaganza. She was also the lucky first to wear the Golden Chef Cap given for the first time this year to the winner of YCO 2019. The silver trophy went to Romania's Bogdan-Petru-Alin Vandici of ICEP Hotel School and the bronze went to England's Luke Hayward from the University College of Birmingham. Along with the trophy, Cyrene also bagged a gold medal and was handed over a cheque for $10,000.

     (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/817227/IIHM_Winners_of_YCO19.jpg )

     (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/817228/IIHM_Names_Categories_YCO19.jpg )

Shocked and awed at her victory, Cyrene was nervous and managed to thank everyone for her win. "I am honoured to win this recognition from IIHM at YCO 19. I want to thank them all for this wonderful opportunity and I am overwhelmed to have won this trophy and prize," said Cyrene.

This year, the International Young Chef Olympiad, had an additional attraction with a Plate Trophy for countries that ranked between 11 to 20. The plate trophy winner was Matthew Potgieter, a student of South African Academy of Culinary Arts.

The International Young Chef Olympiad 2019, commenced on January 28th 2019 with a Grand Opening ceremony held at Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishna Auditorium in New Delhi. After that, the countries completed two rounds of competition in Delhi, Pune and Bangalore before coming to Kolkata for the final round.

Cyrene bagged the winner's trophy after the final round held at the IIHM Global Campus in Kolkata. The final round included preparing a salmon-based dish, a potato-based side and a dessert. Apart from the winner's trophy, Cyrene also bagged an award for Best Hygienic Practice.

TheInternational Young Chef Olympiad 2019 was presented by the International Institute of Hotel Management (IIHM) in association with International Hospitality Council (IHC). The culinary competition this year had a special message for everyone. With the opening of the brand new IT-enabled Global Campus in Kolkata, the International Institute of Hotel Management (IIHM) made heads turn when hundreds of students, along with the judges and mentors turned out on the street of Sector V to celebrate the Global Connect and bonding and unity of so many countries, on 1st February 2019. The campus was officially opened by a ceremonial ribbon cutting by the eminent judges, mentors, participants and IIHM students.

"It is indeed heart-warming to see the extraordinary response that the Young Chef Olympiad (YCO) has received from the hospitality and culinary industry globally, with 50 countries participating in YCO 2019. YCO is emerging as an annual global convention for the culinary stars of tomorrow. Today, standing at the closing ceremony of the fifth Young Chef Olympiad, I feel that this platform is about bringing the world together. It's about global harmony, coming together, bonding cultures and making 'one world'. Young Chef Olympiad is much bigger than just a cooking competition, it is a platform for the united world of young chefs," said Dr Suborno Bose, the Chairman of the YCO 2019 committee.

Winners in other categories:

The International Young Chef Olympiad 2019 had a bunch of surprises for everyone; there were several other category prizes which went to the countries. The Best Dessert Dish in Round 1 went to Ahmed Alawadhi from Bahrain, the Late Shakuntala Devi Award for Best Vegetarian Dish Creation in Round 2 went to Andrea Guardiani from Italy. Apart from France, the Best Hygienic Practice Awards also went to Jordan McKenzie of Scotland and Henry Tan Jung Ming from Singapore.

The Best Ambassador Awards went to Ryan Malone of Ireland, Eden Frank of New Zealand and Gizem Öznacar from Switzerland. The Mentors Nomination Awards went to Elina Seguin of Canada, Daniel Busuttil of Malta and Jordan Mckenzie of Scotland.

The Rising Star Award selected from the Delhi rounds went to Yea Rim Kim of South Korea. The Rising Star from the Pune round went to Tafadzwa Nigel Siyanga from Zimbabwe.

The Welcome Skills Special Achievement Award went to Aqsa Iqbal of Bangladesh.

The Young chef Olympiad through other's eyes:

Michelin Chef John Wood, who was a senior judge of YCO19 was here for the competition for the second time. He was awed by the whole experience. "IIHM is going great. Their hospitality and organization of the event is fantastic. As far as the competition is concerned, I think the standard is great. From the judges' point of view, we should try to educate and guide these students who are in a learning experience, not just a competition. The plate trophy was introduced to encourage the students. YCO is all about celebrating success when we have got something right, which is why we have so many different categories of awards," he said.

Prof David Foskett, the Chairman of the Jury said, "The competition is about bringing people from different parts of the world together and that is what is most important here. Food unites people, it creates companionship, makes friends, breaks barriers and bonds people."

Padma Shri Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, who is also the Chief Mentor of YCO said, "When we were studying, there was no platform like YCO. I am happy that students today have the opportunity to experience something like YCO."

Chef Ranveer Brar, the Brand Ambassador of IIHM said, "YCO is a great platform where you give and you get. Both the participants and the students of IIHM who take part in organizing the event benefit from it eventually and get to learn a lot more."

United World of Young Chefs:

The second edition of the unique event within Young Chef Olympiad, was held on the evening of 1st February, 2019 at Novotel. The young chefs and their mentors from the 50 participating nations got together and presented their country's traditional dishes. They shared their roots, culinary culture and the extraordinary ways in which food unites.

The evening was quite a blend of flavours and colours and each contestant prepared their country's staple food and presented the food wearing traditional attire.

About IIHM:

IIHM (International Institute of Hotel Management) is the largest chain of premier hospitality and hotel management schools across India that started its journey in 1994 in Kolkata. 2018 marked the 25th year of IIHM that is part of Indismart Group, the conglomerate that operates the Indismart Hotels. IIHM campuses are located across eight national and international cities with the associate institute IAM-IHM located in Kolkata, Goa and Guwahati. Students passing out of IIHM are armed with an international degree from the University of West London and equipped with global hospitality skills that enable easy placements in any hospitality brand across the world. IIHM is dedicated to its pursuit of excellence in teaching and placements. Real time experience is the key to success in hospitality and that makes the institute popular. In recent years, IIHM has been instrumental in organizing the Young Chef Olympiad, a unique idea and initiative inviting young culinary talents from across the world to participate in the biggest cookery reality show of all time.

The institute has bagged several prestigious awards including the Best Education Brand Award from Economic Times in 2018 and in 2017. IIHM was also awarded as one among the World's Greatest Brands & Leaders 2015-16 by URS International (IMEA - Process Reviewer PriceWaterhouseCoopers P.L.) and also received the Best Institute in Hospitality Education 2017 Award bv ASSOCHAM from Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey, Hon'ble Minister of State for HRD (Higher Education), Govt. of India. For more information, please visit: www.iihm.ac.in.

Media Contact:
Abdullah Ahmed
[email protected]
+91-11-43204700
Director, International Institute of Hotel Management