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CULINARY wizards Sayed Hanif and Yousif Ahmed have found the recipe for success and secured a spot in the regional final of a leading cooking contest.
The dynamic duo from The Diplomat Radisson Blu Hotel, Residence & Spa Bahrain will fly out to Dubai today to compete in tomorrow’s Anchor MasterChef Challenge Final.
Fonterra, a farmer-owned New Zealand-based dairy export company, has been holding the event for the past three years and it is the brainchild of its German-born advisory chef, Peter Hallmanns.
Ahmed and Hanif cooked-up a storm in the nationwide challenge after going ‘head-to- head’ with the Gulf Hotel Bahrain team, the Jawad Group and junior colleagues from the Radisson Blu at a ‘cook-off’ held at The Kebab Factory close to the Jawad Dome near Saar.
“It was an amazing feeling to win,” said Pastry Chef Ahmed.
The competing chefs had three hours to dazzle the judges with a signature starter, main and dessert dish using Anchor feta cheese, cooking cream, whipping cream and butter.
Mr Hallmanns and Mövenpick Hotel Bahrain’s executive chef Alfred Zuberbuehler judged the dishes in accordance to international standards based on skills, hygiene, wastage and timing in the kitchen and later on taste, presentation and innovation.
Pakistani hot-kitchen Chef Hanif, 35, from Manama, wowed the panel with his quall parcel appetiser, avocado tapenade, pomegranate sherbert and mango sauce. His main course also impressed. The hot potato fondant had an arugula cream sauce centre, a cauliflower panna cotta with chilli jam and accompanied a salmon grilled with a macadamia crust, lemon-butter sauce and beetroot syrup.
Bahraini Chef Ahmed, 37, from Karranah, used his 12 years of baking experience to produce a sumptuous hazelnut parfait dessert wrapped in chocolate with crème brûlée, strawberry syrup, and a caramelised-baked banana cake. The highlight of the dish was a swirled sugar ribbon to top off the dessert.
Father-of-two Chef Ahmed says he is extremely thrilled and cannot wait to compete in Dubai. He said: “It’s the little details that really count such as the sugar ribbon on the dessert and Hanif’s chilli jam.”
The duo have been practicing regularly under the guidance and support of The Radisson’s Executive Chef Raimund Braun, a German national with extensive experience in kitchens all over the globe. They will be facing seven pairs in a four-hour ‘mystery basket’ contest at Fonterra’s state-of-the-art innovation kitchen, the Culinarium.
They will compete against two teams from Saudi Arabia, four from the UAE and one from Oman.
Mr Braun said: “I am there to support their ideas and guide them in the right direction. I want them to feel confident with what they are making.
“Since it is a ‘mystery basket’ challenge the chefs don’t know what they will be up against. This is why I have Ahmed and Hanif practicing every day with my own versions of the mystery challenge.
“I will give them ingredients that they will never expect and ask them to create something delicious. For example, I will give Ahmed savoury ingredients and say make me a dessert. Then we work together on how to do that, researching and coming up with new ideas. They are going to be ready for this competition.
“I am extremely pleased to have Hanif and Ahmed, an expat and a local, representing us in such a prestigious regional challenge.
“Food is a very universal thing and we are going to the challenge with this slogan in mind ...‘Cooking for Unity- Bahrain United’.
“This is especially relevant to our political situation here and anything positive coming out of Bahrain is important – whether it is F1 or top exhibition, people need to see the good in Bahrain, as I do.”
The overall winning team will walk away with a cut from around BD3,000 of prize money which will be divided amongst the top three teams.
Organiser Mr Hallmanns added: “I believe the best way for a chef to learn new techniques is through competition. We used these events as an opportunity to show Fonterra’s way of interacting with the industry while also offering chefs all over the region a chance to compete and learn at the same time.”
The other contestants were Preetam Singh and Mohammad Tanvir Ahmed from the Diplomat Hotel, Ashoka Wijesinghe Hapan and Pathmasiri Rajapaksha from the Gulf Hotel and Mandip Aryal, Elias Aboud and Ken Edward Ignacio from the Jawad Group team Delifrance.
