The Edge Chefs Scoop 28 Awards

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 29, 2009 --(PR.com)-- This prestigious competition, which ran last month at Dubai World Trade Centre, has been held for the past 14 years and has gained additional momentum and scope with each passing year.

This is the first time in the history of the event that one establishment has ever secured the leading top three awards of overall Best Chef of the Year. "Never, in the history of the Emirates International Salon Culinaire, have the top three awards been won by a single establishment. History has been made here today," announced Andy Cuthbert, Chairman of the Emirates Culinary Guild.

The Edge team, who won the highest number of Gold medals at the event, was one of 75 fellow competing culinary establishments represented by a total of 1300 chefs from all over the region including entrants from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Lebanon. The leading top three awards of overall Best Chef of the Year 2009 were all awarded to The Edge team with Shivji Sasidharan winning Best Chef 2009 award, while Mario Coelho and Jannes Siahaan earned 1st and 2nd runner up positions respectively.

“I am extremely proud of the team to have made an historical record at this event. This actually goes hand in hand with the way we think about food, every day at The Edge,” commented Juraj Kalna, Executive Chef at The Edge.

The annual culinary contest was organized by the Emirates Culinary Guild (ECG), the UAE's association of professional chefs. In keeping with the ethos of the ECG, the event inspires chefs to stretch the boundaries of their culinary artistic skills and present their creations to internationally accredited culinary judges who assess presentation on individual merit rather than in comparison to one another. In this sense, entrants do not directly compete against each other but are encouraged to strive for perfection and attain the highest possible standard of excellence.

In accordance with the World Association of Chefs (WACS) system, competitors start with 100 marks and each judge then deducts marks according to the transgressions he believes the competitor has made. The resultant marks from each of the judges are tallied and an average score is confirmed. In theory, all contestants could win a gold medal or, conversely, not win anything, it’s about inspiring creativity and recognizing excellence in culinary skill.

Earlier, The Edge culinary team competed last year in The Salon Culinaire 2008 with Juraj Kalna winning the Best Chef Award while the first runner up award went to Yerson Behi the Sous Chef at The Edge.

The Edge Executive Chef Juraj Kalna and Sous-Chef Shivji Sasidharan, representing the UAE, competed last October aside with prominent chefs from 54 nations in a variety of categories scooping one gold and two silver medals at the Culinary Olympics in Erfurt, Germany.

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