Russian chef Ivan Berezutsky was awarded as winner of an annual international haute cuisine contest in Barcelona, Spain, on Saturday, an organizer said.
Carles Jimenez Morera said young chefs from 16 countries studying in Spanish cook schools took part in the event called A Taste of Spain organized by the Spanish Academy of Gastronomy.
“The main condition in the contest was to cook food on an individual recipe using the ingredients from the list of traditional Spanish food products,” Morera said.
The young chefs also had to tell the jury about their culinary experience during the cooking classes in Spain.
A special panel of Lourdes Plana, head of Madrid Fusion, and Carlos Falco, a wine connoisseur and president of the Academy of Gastronomy in Castilla-La Mancha, unanimously granted the first prize to Russian Ivan Berezutsky for his almond and apple pie.
As part of a year-long course in foreign chefs training, Berezutsky had also received training at two famous Spanish restaurants El Bulli and Calima where dinner can cost from 100 to 200 euros.
Berezutsky’s triumph put an end to many years of Danish domination at the competition and demonstrated the high skill of a new generation of Russian chefs, Morera said.