The annual Central Asian Chef Battle on U.S. Beef cooking
The annual Central Asian Chef competition on U.S. Beef cooking was held on May 27-29 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
This year the competition was conducted for the fifth time, for the first time as the Team championship, and for the first time a team from Baku, Azerbaijan took part in the competition. A total of 14 teams with three chef each participated in the Battle, four of which got through to the final round and went on to compete for the top pot - a trip to Dubai, UAE, and the chance to experience working with U.S. Beef in the country.
In the qualifying competitions, the chef teams had to prepare four dishes: appetizers, salads/cold snacks, hot snacks, main dishes. To demonstrate skill, they were offered secondary cut muscles U.S. Beef Top Blade and Tri-Tip. Two teams from Kazakhstan reached the final - Turkestan Chefs Hub and Filigrana- and one each from Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan - MeatMe Grill & Bar and Beh-Beh Brotherhood.
Four black boxes with a complex set of must-have ingredients, such as white corn, cumin, devzira (brown rice), turnip, celery stalk, melon, yogurt, mint, shrimp, offered two kinds of U.S. Beef muscle - Skirts and Top Sirloin Butt Cap (Picanha). U.S. Beef doneness (grilled and roasted) over medium was not allowed. The heat of the final passions was furious, in a tough fight the victory was wrested from competitors by the team from Uzbekistan MeatMe Grill & Bar.
Judging was conducted by a jury of high chef - representatives from each of the participating countries: Yegor Danilchenko, Kazakhstan, Sarvar Ganiev, Uzbekistan, Akhmat Rakhimov, Kyrgyzstan, Rovshan Iskandarov, Azerbaijan, the jury was chaired by chief-consultant Pavel Galkovsky, who was amazed at the high level of professionalism of the chiefs participated in the competition, the variety of ideas for U.S. Beef dishes and the taste variety of the culinary delights offered.
The competition was organized and conducted by USMEF and Texas Beef Council. The partners of the activity were companies BSPiK KZ, Ars-Di UZ, Culinary studio Gastronomica UZ, companies Brown UZ, Chef Star KZ. The last two companies provided gifts/discounts for the 2-4 spots.
Source: USMEF
