Bulgarians awarded at international culinary competition in Luxembourg

If you prepare a delicious meal and serve it in a beautiful manner – that is an art! It has its masters too and they all met in Luxembourg to show their skills. Some sort of a world tournament takes place there every four years under the auspices of the World Association of Chefs Societies /WACS/. Over 45 countries took part in the competition this year, Bulgaria among them. Our participants brought back home a silver and two bronze medals. “That was the first time that we won medals at a competition of this kind – Vice-President of the Bulgarian Association of Professional Chefs /BAPC/ Ivan Manchev says. – We are proud of it. However, we need to improve our skills in many directions – the work itself, its organization and our vision for the development of culinary. We were glad that we had the chance to compete with some of the best chefs in the world. We are enthusiasts – we organize and do everything by ourselves and thanks to that we continue to move forward. The idea is also Bulgaria to be popularized as a destination for gourmet tourism.”
The preparation of this kind of event starts at least a year earlier. One needs a precise coordination of the participants, compiling of menus and providing the necessary products. We are talking mostly about those used at carving – the art of fruits and vegetables’ engraving and making sculptures out of them. This discipline is yet to be developed in Bulgaria, but our participant at the contest in Luxembourg Veselina Slavcheva won a silver and a bronze medal exactly in it. Mrs. Slavcheva is a member of BAPC and a president of the Bulgarian Carving Association:

“I have been a professional carver for two years now – she says. – I used to study that art in its homeland – Thailand before that. I have also won prizes at similar contests, held in Turkey and France. Besides fruit carving, I competed in the making of figures from butter, salt, caramel and chocolate that required extreme precision. Judges assess each detail – the depth of the cut, its accuracy etc. I worked on the subject, dedicated to spring and rebirth of life in nature. I created out of fruits and vegetables a composition of two figures – a female and a horse, covered with flowers. My second composition was made entirely of carrots and pumpkin. It represented two overlapping dragons, coming out from the inside of the pumpkin. It wasn’t really easy for me to select the figures and materials, but I am happy with my work. I will miss the emotion of the competition and the thrill of success.”
Medals, new people met and invitations for work and joint trainings – these are the results from the Bulgarian participation in Luxembourg.