CYPRUS can now officially claim it has some of the best food and chefs in the world. The reason being the island’s remarkable success of winning four medals at the Culinary Olympics held in Germany, which ended with the closing ceremony yesterday.
The third and least well known of this year’s Olympics, which attracted some 25,000 spectators, started last Sunday with 36 nations sending their finest chefs to sizzle it out in the city of Erfurt.
The competition was the largest since the Culinary Olympics began in 1900 with 45 regional teams and a total of 240 chefs present to take part.
Cypriot chefs participating for the first time competed in disciplines as diverse as cold platters and confectionery, and came out of the mouthwatering event in fine style scooping up one silver and three bronze medals to finish in twelfth position overall. It was a rare national victory for the island’s chefs, who blended modern cooking with traditional recipes in Cypriot cuisine. Organisers of the event were particularly impressed with Cypriot dishes of ‘modern’ Sheftalia, Chicken stuffed with Halloumi and tomato, and their impressive array of sauces.
Speaking from Germany, the President of the Cyprus Chefs’ Association Marios Hadjiosif told the Cyprus Mail 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.”
Hadjiosif added: “We worked very hard because we wanted to put on a good show and everything came out great for us. We would like to thank the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) for sponsoring us as well as various organisations in Germany for helping us.”
Doing their cooking in glass-walled kitchens, the participants were closely watched by an international jury who judged them on presentation, creativity, and of course, on how tasty the food was. Unlike most Olympics, however, spectators can also get their hands on the winnings as they can 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 Swedish team – with the Germans coming a poor seventh. First place in the games this year was taken by Switzerland with Scotland behind them in them in second place. Germany finished tenth.
