Monday, 22 April – The World Gourmet Summit (WGS) launched the inaugural Meat and Livestock Youth Chef’s Day, the first of what is hopefully a series of many more. Almost 300 F&B students from SHATEC, At-Sunrise GobalChef Academy, Temasek Culinary Academy, Republic Polytechnic and the Institute of Technical Education were invited to attend. As a casual practitioner of the Culinary Arts myself, the event was to say the least, inspiring.
Held at Alkaff Mansion and hosted by Gold 90.5 DJs Maggie Lim and Hamish Brown, the event was expectedly WGS-levels fancy and also very much student centric. Except maybe during the sausage-making demonstration by Ernst Huber (owner of Huber’s Butchery), where innuendos abounded courtesy of the hosts . Or maybe they weren’t innuendos at all. Hmmmm.
Other leading industry figures like restauranteur Olivier Bendel, Peter Knipp, Michelin 3-starred Chef Yannick Alléno, and father-son duo Paco and Jacob Torreblanca shared their experiences and advice, fielding questions from the audience and being all-round inspiring figures for all the F&B students present.
The day was also packed with demonstrations which filled the entire tentage with VERY seductive smells. Janice Wong (from 2am:Lab and 2am:Dessert Bar) and Daniel Sia (of The Disgruntled Chef fame) collaborated to show how a savoury dish is easily transformed into something… dessert-esque. Then it was cooking demonstrations featuring cheeses and seafood respectively –  by the hilarious David Senia (Executive Chef of Capella Singapore) and Jimi Tegerdine from LeVel33.Â
The day ended on a yet-again inspiring note with the President of Singapore Chefs Association, Chef Edmund Toh, who showcased the first Asian dishes of the day and then went on to share on the association itself. From their general reaction, it seemed that the young potentials in the audience were all well motivated and inspired. Plus one for our culinary future!