Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel’s culinary team took part in the recent Food & Hotel Asia Culinary Challenge 2018 and is proud to have achieved two gold medals, two silver medals and two bronze medals for the Individual Challenge, as well as a silver medal for the Gourmet Team Challenge.

Led by Executive Chef David Toh, the Gourmet Team Challenge team comprised Executive Sous Chef Madeline Tan, Chef De Cuisine Cheng Hun Pin, Senior Sous Chef Eric Kam, Pastry Chef Jason Ng and Junior Sous Chef Chai Yoon Cheong. It was the first time that the team participated in this segment and have clinched a silver medal.

The Gourmet Team Challenge is an international competition that is open to teams from hotels, restaurants, culinary institutions, airlines or catering establishments. For the challenge, the team is required to prepare a cold edible buffet with 1 hot appetiser for 30 diners to be served in a café setting, similar to an outside catering site. The team was judged based on criteria such as materials used, mise-en-place, hygiene, presentation and innovation, and taste and texture.

Together with his team, Executive Chef, David Toh conceptualised the buffet with a theme of ‘Simplicity with Art’. The buffet was conceptualised beginning the idea of preparing simple cuisine with modern art presentation to ensure that it was a feast for the senses.

The look from the buffet line reflects the careful thoughts that were put in during the months of conceptualisation and preparation by the team. Besides the chefs who practiced their culinary skills to present the best taste for diners, Hotel Artist Wee Eng Guan did a fabulous job in assisting with the presentation of the buffet line. In addition to his daily tasks of decorating and beautifying areas in the hotel and assisting with creating themed events, he was given an important role of conceptualising the presentation and producing the plating for the dishes.

The Individual Challenge segment is open to any professional chef from a hotel, restaurant, confectionery, airline, culinary training institute or catering establishment. There are 15 classes to choose from and the individual chefs from the hotel took part in the Hot Cooking and Desserts categories. Junior Sous Chef Nelson Lee and Cook I Sia Jun Kang bagged the gold medals for Hot Cooking while Cook I Tan Heng Cong and Cook I Tang Jun Hao took home bronze medals in the same class. Cook I Magdalene Kong and Cook I Ong Siew Chai were awarded silver medals for the Desserts category.

Food & Hotel Asia is a biennial international F&B and Hospitality Trade Show in Asia.