There’s more to Cypriot cuisine than souvla as the island’s team at the Culinary Olympics showed
THERE’S more to cooking in Cyprus than slapping copious amounts of meat on the barbeque, as the Cyprus National Culinary Olympic Team proved when they picked up four medals at the recent culinary Olympics.
A remarkable show of skill and imagination saw the Cypriot chefs pick up one silver and three bronze medals at the contest, held in Germany, in their tournament debut, finishing off a creditable sixteenth. Previously Cyprus raised eyebrows by snapping up two medals in the Culinary World Cup in Luxembourg two years ago. Team Mission Chef George Kyprianou, who also works at Intercollege, said he wanted to send the message to households throughout the island that there is more to the kitchen than traditional dishes.
The third and least well known of this year’s Olympic Games, the culinary variety attracted 25,000 spectators and spanned four days. Thirty six nations did battle with their pots and pans in the city of Erfurt. The competition was also the largest since the Culinary Olympics began in 1900 with 240 chefs taking part.
The Cyprus team picked up a bronze in the ‘three-course menu, pastry and hot kitchen categories.
While stressing there is more to Cypriot cuisine than souvla, Kyprianou said the Cyprus team wanted to highlight the traditions of local cooking in their recipes, “There were certain guidelines and regulations in cooking procedures for all the teams participating so we had to present our traditions like the halloumi and walnut stuffing in the desert in specific ways.”
Talking from Germany, the President of the Cyprus Chefs’ Association Marios Hadjiosif said he was delighted with the success of the team. “We are obviously very happy with our performance. For a team which has participated in such an event for the first time we have succeeded in winning a medal in all the different categories we participated in. There were nations present at the competition who have been participating in the last four or five events and only managed to win one medal during the entire tournament.”
“I don’t believe that we have any reason to envy chefs abroad anymore,” pastry chef Stelios Philipou added.
Organisers of the event were particularly impressed with Cypriot dishes such as modern sheftalia, chicken stuffed with halloumi and tomato and their impressive array of sauces.
Doing their cooking in glass-walled kitchens, the participants were closely watched by an international jury who judge them on presentation, creativity, and of course, taste. Unlike most Olympics, however, spectators can also get their hands on the winnings as they are able to sample all of the dishes on offer at the restaurant.
The Culinary Olympics has been held every four years in Germany, except during the two world wars, since being launched by a group of German chefs in 1900.
The original aim of the competition was to make people more aware of how good German cooking is, although last time round the run-away winners were the Swedes with the Germans coming a poor seventh. First place in the games this year was again taken by Sweden with Switzerland behind them in them in second place and USA in third.
Cyprus Team:
George Damianou (Four Seasons Hotel)
Team Chef, Chef de cuisine
Petros Gavriel (Eurest Support Services)
Executive Chef
Spyros Elia (Miramare Hotel)
Executive Chef
Antonis Charalambous (Four Seasons Hotel)
Banquet Chef
George Kyprianou (Intercollege)
Team Mission Chef
Charris Philipou (Coral Beach Hotel)
Sous Chef
Nikos Papanikolaou (Eurest Support Services)
Chef Garde Manager
Yiannos Grigoriou (Four Seasons Hotel)
Pastry Chef
Marios Andreou (Cyprus Airways Catering)
Production Chef
Andreas Vouzounis (Episkopi Garrison)
Pastry Chef
Maria Panteli (Four Seasons Hotel)
Garde Manager
Stelios Philipou (Hilton Hotel)
Pastry Chef
Warm salmon and pike perch terrine, pan seared giant scallop with basil foam, baked wild sea bass on mussel fricassee, fish tomato sauce
Ingredients
120gr fresh salmon filet
120 pike perch
10gr chopped dill
salt & pepper
4 giant scallops
5ml olive oil for frying
160gr fillet of sea bass
10ml olive oil
120gr fresh mussels
10gr butter
5gr chopped onions
1 glove mashed garlic
1 seedless chopped tomato
10ml xinisteri wine
10ml double heavy cream
5ml fish stock
10ml skimmed milk
5gr basil puree
Ingredients for tomato sauce
20ml fish stock
15ml tomato sauce
Preparation
Cut the fillet of salmon and pike perch in long strips marinated with salt, pepper and chopped oil. Place in a mould and cook for 18 minutes in steamer.
Fillet the sea bass, clean the bones and cut in 40gr pieces. Season with salt and pepper, brush with olive oil and bake into the oven for 3 minutes.
Clean the scallops, add salt the pepper and quick sear in olive oil.
In a pan, saute the chopped onions, garlic and mussels and moisten with the wine. add the tomatoes, the cream and reduce by half. Correct the taste with salt and pepper.
Peel the asparagus, blanch and saute in butter.
In the middle of the plate, arrange a slice of fish terrine topped with the scallop. Put the mussel fricassee and the baked sea bass on top. Garnish with buttered asparagus and seasonal greens. Serve with fish tomato sauce.
