Switzerland enjoyed considerable success at the official culinary world championships in Luxembourg at the end of November. Overall, the national teams won five gold medals, a world title and were also runners up in one contest. Switzerland and the Swiss Federation of Chefs have a right to be really proud of their culinary ambassadors.

Two teams in Luxembourg
The Swiss Federation of Chefs sent two teams to the Culinary World Cup in Luxembourg: the Swiss national junior culinary team and the Swiss national culinary team. All Swiss team members are in full-time employment and cook during their spare time. So, these results are particularly worthy of appreciation.

The juniors as vice world champions
The national junior team has been one of the best teams in the world for decades. All the young chefs on the team were able to stand up to this pressure. In both contests (a contemporary buffet for twelve people and three-course menu for 70 people), they won the coveted gold medal. Teams that win gold twice are among the title favourites. However, the Austrians just edged in front to scoop the world championship title. The Swiss juniors were runners-up, leaving the favourites from Scandinavia way behind.

A world championship title for the chocolate specialist
Jorge Cardoso, the specialist chocolate maker from the Swiss national team, created an outstanding masterpiece for the competition, based on the theme of Swissness. The judges simply had to award him the world championship title.

The best result in years
The newly-formed Swiss national culinary team caused a real stir at their first competition. Despite an outstanding display table and pretty perfect service for 110 guests, they narrowly missed the podium and came in fourth. For a team that has only been training together for about 18 months, this was a great success.

Justine Hewson / AvS