Although the competition was held in the beginning of march, we have had many thing keeping me busy and out of touch with the blog.
The competition was held between the 3 hotels and consisted of chinese main, amuse bouche, western cold appetizers, western main, and dessert.
We had 3 young cooks from my pastry kitchen compete in the dessert category along with pastry cooks from the other hotels. For all fairness I wanted to keep out of there decisions and let them really work hard to create something of their own. A small amount of input and tasting was done by myself along the way but it was very important to me that my that the guys really use their creativity and experience to do this.
The prizes were quite nice, 1st place - dinner for two at Robuchon, 2nd place - dinner for two at Nobu and 3rd price was dinner for two at Cafe Grey Deluxe.
I couldnt be more proud of my guys on the effort they put into it and the end result. Without judging the scorecards, I knew they blew everyone else away.
And with the scorecards I was even more pleased! All category's were judged together based on the usual criteria so it would be fair overall. But I was a bit surprised when the scores were tallied up and my 3 pastry team all had the top 3 scores! In order to keep things fair the 2nd and 3rd place award were given to the savory side, chinese and western respectively.
1st place went to pastry! Mr Tse Chun Fung with his B52. The idea and components were perfect, well thought out and plating was great.
chocolate mousse - kahlua ice cream - grand marnier and orange jelly - coffee anglaise and coffee crouton
Second highest score went to Ngan Kin Pong with his Tropical dessert. Some of my favorite flavors, pina colada sorbet was excellent! I am however in someways sad to say that Mr. Pong will be leaving us to go work at Pierre Gagniere. I hate to lose my guys but am always extremely happy and proud when they leave for a place like that! Wish you all the best Pong!
kiwi sauce - sable - mango yoghurt mousse - coconut cream - pina colad sorbet
And 3rd highest score went to Fu Wai Yee (Annie) with her chocolate and passionfruit dessert. The dark chocolate balanced very well with the passionfruit
dark chocolate mousse - ginger honey gelee - chocolate truffle - passionfruit ice cream
You guys rock!!
If you are in HK, you can sample their desserts in our lobby lounge in May and June
