The world’s most prestigious cooking competition starts this week.
This week, a large group of the world’s best chefs will travel to Lyon, France. There are several top chefs from Finland as well, and by no means the least Ismo Sipeläinen.
He is Finland’s representative in the most prestigious competition for chefs, Bocuse d’Or, the final of which is the 20th time this year.
The team’s coach, Kristian Vuojärvi, watches all the work phases. Eeva Paljakka
Sipeläinen has been training for two years aiming for Monday’s final, where he has five and a half hours to prepare the competition portions.
The year of celebration has brought – again – changes to the rules of the competition.
Finnish team leader Sasu Laukkonen notes that this year’s Bocuse d’Or is, simply put, more of a cooking competition.
This year, the tasks are more complicated than before. The competition organization has defined several things to the minute, such as the pie on the meat platter. It should be round, with a crispy crust, a diameter of 20 centimeters and a height of 6 centimeters. Cut the pie into 16 pieces, each of which must have, for example, duck liver visible.
– There aren’t an awful lot of things that you can do as you want, Laukkonen laughs.
But he doesn’t see it as a bad thing at all:
– Now we are measuring cooking skills.
Sipeläinen also shares the same opinion.
– All dishes are classic and have a lot of challenges. At least in Nordic fine dining restaurants, dough crust pies are not made every day, says Sipeläinen.
Ismo Sipeläinen and assistant Kaisa Laanemäe. Laanemäe was in the training kitchen as a student in the previous competition season. Eeva Paljakka
University of Applied SciencesoIn the premises of ulu Haaga-Helia, the Finnish team has been training hard since the tasks for the January finals were announced.
But first Sipeläinen, his assistant or commis Kaisa Laanemäkicoach Kristian Vuojärvi and Laukkonen spent a couple of days thinking about what can and cannot be done. Error points can come from many things.
Error points could have been received from the very first communication. Information, stories, videos had to be sent to the competition organization. If they don’t arrive on time, error points may pop up.
Arttu Ahola is one of Perho’s students who helps in the training kitchen. Eeva Paljakka
Many sheets of questions to the organizers of all competition teams have been taped to the doors of the refrigerator row in the practice kitchen. The question and answer battery reveals, among other things, whether browned butter or vegan cream is allowed in a certain element.
Nothing is certain until each team gets to start their own competition. In the European qualifier in Trondheim, Finland had received permission to use dried reindeer blood, but the judges were still going to shelve the blood.
They looked at the plastic bag against the light and saw a shine, so they thought the bag contained spices.
– We urged them to taste and smell the dried blood, then we took out the papers and showed the permit we had received, Laukkonen says.
In the same competition, the Icelandic team’s Norwegian cheese was not accepted because it had been removed from its original wrappers.
The same fate befell the ink of the German team’s octopus, which was in a vacuum bag. It doesn’t matter what product it is, it should be in the package.
This year at Bocuse d’Or, a new rule is, among other things, that the plate task is no longer just a plate task. There must also be a plate next to it, where some of the components of the plate are on display. In the past, the platter has only been used for meat.
The exercise schedule is taped to the refrigerator door. Eeva Paljakka
The ingredients for the first plate assignment are eagle fish, lobster, celery root and celery stalks. Celery makes two identical components for eight people. In addition, 16 identical side dishes from celery stalks are presented on the platter.
Celery portions are lifted from a platter onto a plate with a component made of eagle fish and lobster. Hot lobster sabayon sauce is served as part of the dish.
The raw materials for the meat task are a whole, bone-in fillet of roe deer and two bone-in shoulder blades and duck liver. In addition, there is a separate side dish next to the dish, which is two-color closed ravioli filled with a filling of your choice in a clear roe deer broth flavored with either smoked Japanese tea, black Indian tea or Oolong Chinese tea.
The roe deer is placed on a platter in three pieces, which are cut on plates for the jury to evaluate. The platter also comes with a pie containing roe shoulder and duck liver, and a side dish based on the local fruit of each country.
– That’s healthy, Laukkonen says about this year’s rules.
Ismo Sipeläinen, Kaisa Laanemäe and Kristian Vuojärvi train to get the portions for 16 plates in six minutes. Otherwise there will be error points. Eeva Paljakka
They have something to remember. No wonder they are also taped to the doors of the refrigerators in the practice kitchen.
The Finnish team competes on the second day of the final and as the third team on the second day.
– We have good settings. The Finnish competition starts in the morning, so you don’t have to wait long. The time is the most favorite of all. The most comfortable ever. On the first day, we can time, among other things, how long the other teams’ platter spins for the jury to evaluate, Laukkonen praises.
Whatever the start time, the Finnish team will stand next Monday at 5:30 a.m. in Lyon at the loading dock with all their raw materials and equipment, ready for the race day and performance.
Coach Kristian Vuojärvi observes the work in the kitchen and intervenes in problem areas. Eeva Paljakka
The Bocuse d’Or competitions will be held in Lyon, France on January 26-27, 2025.