Hungary won the special prize for the best platter and qualified for the 2025 Bocuse d’Or World Final to be held in Lyon.
On 19-20 March, the European Bocuse d’Or finals were held in Trondheim, Norway. The top nine places qualified for the final in Lyon early next year. The Hungarian team won in one of the themes.
On the one hand, their 6th place secured their spot in the final of the world’s most prestigious cooking competition, which will take place in January 2025, and on the other hand, they were awarded the special prize for the best platter,
The Hungarian Bocuse d’Or team:
The Hungarian team was headed by Roland Kelemen, Deputy Chef of Hunguest Sóstó. His commis was Noel Fodor from Siófok, who joined the team from his family restaurant. The coach was László Szabó from Hungast, and the team president (and tasting jury) was Bence Dalnoki, sous chef of the two Michelin-starred Stand Restaurant, according to Dining Guide.
The performance of the current team is especially remarkable as its members did not come from the top places in Budapest. Thus, they competed at the top of Europe without any top-end experience, and even won one of the special prizes.
The platter had to be made from two main ingredients, Lofoten skrei, a cod native to Norway, and Frøya scallops. This required two vegetable rounds and a third, in which the cod had to be included. In the plate theme, which was won by the British team, two ingredients were made compulsory: one was reindeer and the other was aquavit, a distilled spirit.
Congratulations to the Hungarian team!
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Cool, congrats and I wish great success in the finals. Hungarian cooking is amazingly tasty when its not oversalted. These chefs must have done an amazing job with those ingredients, codd and scallops- you don’t find those in an average Hungarian kitchen.