UAE’s biggest-ever live cook-off competition for the amateur cooks was jointly initiated by the Dubai Knowledge Park (DKP) and the International Centre for Culinary Arts (ICCA Dubai) and the event successfully took place on November 21st at the ICCA Dubai premises.
The said competition saw a dozen carefully selected contestants tasked with cooking their best pasta or dessert pie in three hours based on the secret ingredients made available to them in their respective Mystery Boxes. It was a surreal opportunity provided to the amateur home cooks and bakers to bring out the Chef in them for the world to see.
Following an unbending selection process, based on the recipes submitted by the contestants, there were around half a dozen selected for each of the two categories. For the live cook-off, every contestant was given a selection of fresh ingredients in a mystery box with which they were expected to make a pasta or dessert pie dish accordingly. The mystery box for pasta contained red & yellow bell peppers, Portobello mushrooms and asparagus. And, the mystery box for the Pie contained bananas, kiwis and Cape gooseberry as the prominent ingredients.
The competition was judged by an eminent panel of judges, comprising of Mohammed Abdullah – Managing Director, Dubai Knowledge Park; Chef Uwe Micheel – Vice President WorldChefs & President Emirates Culinary Guild; Chef Alessandro Miceli - Executive Chef, Bella, Italian Restaurant; Shanaaz Raja, Director of Courses, ICCA Dubai; and Hesa Khalifa Al Khalifa, Food Blogger & Founder of Kuisines Magazine, came together to choose the winning dishes, based on several criteria that included theme, creativity, skills and technique, presentation, flavour, and more.
The two Winners Andre’ Cordina and Ruchi from both categories were awarded ICCA – Amateur Certificate programs in cookery and patisserie worth AED 16,000 each, while the Runners Up Ahmed Sadik and Naima Albastaki won personalized classes in Culinary Arts worth AED 1500.
Commenting on the competition initiative, Mohammad Abdullah Managing Director of Dubai Knowledge Park, said: “We launched this competition in collaboration with our business partner ICCA Dubai to sharpen the skills of promising cooks, provide a unique platform to come together in a safe and competitive environment and separate the patisserie pros from the gnocchi novices. The 12 entrants certainly turned up the heat on judges during the live cook-off and left us with no easy decisions in selecting the winners. We would like to extend our congratulations to all the winners and runners-up, and commend ICCA for its world-class professional and personal culinary training expertise which it provides from our business community.”
The competition was first announced in October 2020 and received a great response of more than 100 entries from across the UAE. The initiative was set up to promote professional culinary skills and standards in the UAE while recognising emerging talent in the industry.
UAE’s biggest-ever live cook-off competition for the amateur cooks was jointly initiated by the Dubai Knowledge Park (DKP) and the International Centre for Culinary Arts (ICCA Dubai) and the event successfully took place on November 21st at the ICCA Dubai premises.
The said competition saw a dozen carefully selected contestants tasked with cooking their best pasta or dessert pie in three hours based on the secret ingredients made available to them in their respective Mystery Boxes. It was a surreal opportunity provided to the amateur home cooks and bakers to bring out the Chef in them for the world to see.
Following an unbending selection process, based on the recipes submitted by the contestants, there were around half a dozen selected for each of the two categories. For the live cook-off, every contestant was given a selection of fresh ingredients in a mystery box with which they were expected to make a pasta or dessert pie dish accordingly. The mystery box for pasta contained red & yellow bell peppers, Portobello mushrooms and asparagus. And, the mystery box for the Pie contained bananas, kiwis and Cape gooseberry as the prominent ingredients.
The competition was judged by an eminent panel of judges, comprising of Mohammed Abdullah – Managing Director, Dubai Knowledge Park; Chef Uwe Micheel – Vice President WorldChefs & President Emirates Culinary Guild; Chef Alessandro Miceli - Executive Chef, Bella, Italian Restaurant; Shanaaz Raja, Director of Courses, ICCA Dubai; and Hesa Khalifa Al Khalifa, Food Blogger & Founder of Kuisines Magazine, came together to choose the winning dishes, based on several criteria that included theme, creativity, skills and technique, presentation, flavour, and more.
The two Winners Andre’ Cordina and Ruchi from both categories were awarded ICCA – Amateur Certificate programs in cookery and patisserie worth AED 16,000 each, while the Runners Up Ahmed Sadik and Naima Albastaki won personalized classes in Culinary Arts worth AED 1500.
Commenting on the competition initiative, Mohammad Abdullah Managing Director of Dubai Knowledge Park, said: “We launched this competition in collaboration with our business partner ICCA Dubai to sharpen the skills of promising cooks, provide a unique platform to come together in a safe and competitive environment and separate the patisserie pros from the gnocchi novices. The 12 entrants certainly turned up the heat on judges during the live cook-off and left us with no easy decisions in selecting the winners. We would like to extend our congratulations to all the winners and runners-up, and commend ICCA for its world-class professional and personal culinary training expertise which it provides from our business community.”
The competition was first announced in October 2020 and received a great response of more than 100 entries from across the UAE. The initiative was set up to promote professional culinary skills and standards in the UAE while recognising emerging talent in the industry.