The Olympics of Cooking

United States earned a major award yesterday as American chefs took the gold in the Bocuse d’Or, a top French culinary competition named for legendary French chef Paul Bocuse. This competition is so difficult, it makes the cheftestants on “Top Chef” and “Chopped” look like burger flippers at McDonald’s.

“It’s certainly an extraordinary moment,” said chef Thomas Keller of the French Laundry and Per Se, president of the team. “We needed to get gold for Monsieur Paul. That was our promise to him nine years ago. We fulfilled that promise.”

A group of 10 American chefs, led by Mathew Peters, 33, who has worked as the executive sous-chef at Per Se, had less than six hours to prepare two extravagant, elaborate dishes. The first was an interpretation of a classic French dish, “Poulet de Bresse aux Écrevisses,” or chicken with crayfish. If that sounds simple to you, let New York Times reporter Florence Fabricant list everything that went into this dish:

“The American version involved the chicken with morel mushroom sausage, braised wings, a wine glaze and sauce Américaine, a kind of lobster sauce. Alongside were a chicken liver quenelle with foie gras, corn custard, black-eyed peas and toasted pistachios, as well as lobster tail with Meyer lemon mousse. The garnishes included preparations using carrots, Vidalia onions, black truffles, carrots, peas and potatoes.”

“The whole point of the competition is to cram as much technique, visual pyrotechnics and flavor” as possible into a dish, said Andrew Friedman, author of “Knives at Dawn,” a book following the 2009 American Bocuse d’Or team. “Usually there’s dozens of recipes in each component on the plate. They rehearse it to the minute.”

Read More: US chefs just won the Olympics of cooking. Did you know there’s such a thing? – Washington Post thumbnail courtesy of washingtonpost.com

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