On Tuesday, January 31, 2006 Russian office of the Chaine des Rotisseurs headed by Thomas Noll conducted the third National Young cook Competition in "Turku" restaurant of Pulkovskaya Hotel.

Young cooks from the best hotels and restaurants of St. Petersburg were competing for the possibility to represent our city at the international phase of the competition in Australia.

The Jury consisted of 3 professional gastronomes and 3 non-professionals but sincere admirers of high cuisine. Among them Igor Kniazev, director of publishing house "Delo Vkusa", director of Bon Vin Company - Dmitry Zhurkin, president of Concept-Training company - Rachel Shakleton. As a special guest and member of the professional jury was invited Jaakko Nuutila, Conseiller Culinaire de Finlande and Member du Conseil d'Administration.

All the participants shown great professionalism while preparing exquisite dishes - the starter, the first course and a dessert were presented to the Jury which estimated not only the taste of the  dishes but also its' presentation and originality.

In spite of common opinion that the best Chefs are men, the Jury elected the only participating female young cook, Anastasia Barsukova from the Grand Hotel Europe. She will now participate in the International Young Cooking Competition, which will take place on the 14th September in Australia.

To complete the picture of fantastic culinary festival organized by the Chaine des Rotisseurs we asked Mr. Henri Everaars, Chancelier of the Chaine who was coordinating all the 3 National cooking competitions to share with us his impressions about the competition of 2006:

"Comparing to the previous competitions I noticed a big improvement, the candidates arrived well prepared, some with their own kitchen equipment. The first impressions were confirmed during the day when I walked through the kitchen and when the starters, main dishes and desserts were presented to the jury. The Executive cooks of the participating hotels and restaurants spent a lot of time and energy to train their candidates for the cooking competition. They were well dressed, and above of all very motivated to win. It was not easy for the Jury to decide who would be the winner.

We congratulate Anastasia Barsukova the only participating female young cook and wish her a lot of success in Australia.

Vive La Chaine!

Click here to see the photos