Team USA Takes Home the Gold in the Bocuse d’Or Americas

We have been watching the Summer Olympics in Paris every day to cheer on competing Team USA athletes. Given the timing and theme, we wanted to introduce you this week on The Connected Table LIVE to the Team U.S.A. Gold Medal Winners for “the world’s culinary Olympics.” We’re talking about the Bocuse d’Or, considered the world’s most rigorous culinary competition.

Meet Chef Stefani De Palma and Commis Bradley Waddle, both native Californians, who took home the gold at the Bocuse d’Or Americas held June 11-13 in New Orleans. The competition included nine chef teams from North and South America, including: Argentina, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela. This was the first time the Bocuse d’Or Americas regional competition has been held in the United States. We were thrilled that New Orleans was chosen as the host city.

The Bocuse d’Or was established in 1987 by Chef Paul Bocuse, considered one of the world’s greatest chefs and the father of French nouvelle cuisine. The mission of Bocuse d’Or is to provide a global gastronomic competition that fosters young talent and serves as a laboratory of excellence from creativity to precision to presentation.

The competition involves competing chef teams in 76 countries from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas who vie for only 24 team spots at the final competition which will be held in late January in Lyon. Since Team USA was first formed in 1987, they’ve reached the podium twice earning the Silver in 2015 and the Gold in 2017. So, we’ll be rooting hard for Team USA during the final competition.

Back in New Orleans, the pressure cooker was turned to high on the two days we attended the events held at the Ernest M. Morial Convention Center where crowds cheered for their teams. Team De Palma and Waddle, coached by Chef Sebastian Gibrand, maintained their cool, level-headed focus as they prepared their competition platters and plates for an esteemed jury comprised of international chefs. Chef teams had five and a half hours to prepare and present two presentations: theme on a platter and theme on a plate.

 

 

Chef Emeril Lagasse served as honorary president for the Bocuse d’Or Americas and selected Louisiana ingredients for the chef teams to use. The theme on a platter presentation required using rack of wild boar, alligator sausage and grits. The theme on a plate presentation required using Louisiana whole white shrimp, jumbo lump crab meat and Murder Point oysters. Many of the chef teams had never worked with alligator and shared they practiced using chicken or other proteins back in their countries.

Chef Jérôme Bocuse, president of the competition, continues his late father’s pursuit to foster culinary excellence. Bocuse is a co-founder with Chefs Daniel Boulud and Thomas Keller of Ment’or, a nonprofit that helps train chefs for the Bocuse d’Or competition and distributes grants to further Team USA’s training. Ment’or’s founders were all present along with many other nationally known chefs including Gavin Kaysen, Frank Brigtsen, Susan Spicer, Alon Shaya, Nina Compton, Paul Bartolotta and Christopher Gross.

Here are the final Bocuse d’Or Americas results:

1st: USA – Stefani De Palma (candidate) – Bradley Waddle (commis)
2nd: CANADA – Keith Pears (candidate) – Joseph Mongillo (commis)
3rd: MEXICO – Marcelo Hisaki (candidate) – Cecilia Palma (commis)
4th: CHILE – Roberto Vallejos (candidate) – Javier Sobarzo (commis)
5th: COLOMBIA – Diego Felipe Torres Giraldo (candidate) – Paula Alejandra Castillo Jiménez (commis)

 

Listen to our conversation with Team USA Chef Stefani De Palma and Commis Bradley Waddle on The Connected Table LIVE here: