Christian Grebenstein, executive sous chef at The Ritz London, has been chosen to represent the UK in the Bocuse d’Or – the world’s largest and most prestigious cookery competition.
Christian was successful in a competition that included Steve Love, former executive chef at Loves Restaurant and Tony Wright, senior chef lecturer at University College Birmingham. The competition took place at Le Cordon Bleu Cookery School in London on Friday 11 September.
The three candidates each had 1½ hours to prepare, cook and present three different hot garnishes, 5 portions of each, 15 pieces in total, suitable for accompanying a Fillet of British beef supplied by sponsors Aubrey Allen. They were asked to use modern techniques and present in the style of the Bocuse d’Or.
Christian’s winning plate was fillet of beef with goose liver crusted with king oyster mushroom, Perigord truffle sauce. His garnishes consisted of: leek Royale surprise; braised carrot cylinder stuffed with pumpkin; parmesan sphere on kohlrabi.
Judging
The judging panel comprised three former Bocuse d’Or candidates: John Williams MBE, executive chef at The Ritz London, Adam Bennett, chef director at The Cross Kenilworth, and Simon Hulstone, chef proprietor of The Elephant in Torquay.
Team UK President, Brian Turner CBE oversaw the proceedings and announced the winner at a Champagne reception sponsored by Moët Hennessy. Praising each of the competitors for the high standard of cooking and presentation, Turner acknowledged the disappointment likely felt by the runners up.
He also used the opportunity to highlight Team UK’s future ambitions. “Just as we will be going to Budapest in 2016, we would like to win the bid to bring it here to London in 2018. It is going to take an awful lot of work and we are going to need a lot of help from an awful lot of people. I think it is about time that we showed the world where we are gastronomically and we should bring those people who are at the top of that gastronomic spectrum to the UK to see what our restaurants are about.”
For more information about Bocuse d’Or Europe 2016 and how you can support Team UK please contact team@bocusedoruk.co.uk.
Pictured: Brian Turner CBE, Team UK President, Christian Grebenstein, executive sous chef The Ritz London, Florent Suplisson, gastronomic events director at GL Events – the organiser of the Bocuse d’Or