Jointly organized by Saudi Arabian Chefs Association (SARCA), which operates under the umbrella of Paris-based World Association of Chefs Societies (WACS), and Al-Harithy Company for Exhibitions at the Jeddah Center for Forums & Events, the four-day Salon Culinaire 2010, has remained a big draw among the show visitors.

While the chefs are competing in live cooking in 21 different categories in Top Chef, the Art de Table contestants from major hotels and restaurants are displaying their fine skills in table display.

Since the opening of the expo and the related competitions on Sunday, the chefs have been prepping, carving, chopping and challenging themselves, doing their best to ensure they walk away with top honors, medals and prizes.

Since its inception, the Salon Culinaire has been a showcase for the Kingdom’s top culinary talent and a major highlight of the Food, Hotel, Propac show. The Top Chef competition categories include plated starters, tapas or finger foods and snacks, show platter meat and game or poultry (cold), show platter fish and shellfish as well as mollusks, plated main course, plated main course Middle Eastern cuisine, three-course menu, vegetarian platter, plated desserts with showpiece, petit fours with showpiece, novelty cake, wedding cake and decorative showpiece.

Live cooking competitions also include the use of Australian meat by the chefs and in cooking Asian, Indian, Arabic and pasta varieties. The Art de Table competition involves designing a table setting to accommodate the needs of SARCA theme “Red Sea and Jeddah.” Besides, there is a creative barista, mocktail, live sandwich, hors’ d Oeuvre and mezzah competitions. Carving on ice, vegetable, fruit, butter, cheese and chocolate is yet another contest.

“I’m participating in five categories in the kitchen art area, in the chocolate carving individual ice carving, fruit and vegetable carving showpiece categories. It’s hard work, but our senior chefs have been very helpful and they provide all the support we need to be at our best for the competition,” says Nazir Jawed, a Syrian chef. He and Abbas Hawzwi are both from the Shami chain of restaurants who are cooking Middle Eastern food for the contest. “We started off with brainstorming sessions, sharing ideas and giving feedback to each other,” Abbas explains.

Judging the various competitions is a panel of judges, headed by Thomas A. Gugler, board member of SARCA and coach of the Saudi Arabian National Cooking Team. The panel includes Uwe Micheel, a German from the UAE, Noel Ramos, a Filipino, George German, a Swiss, and Daniel Prabhakar, an Indian, all from the Kingdom.

SARCA, with membership exceeding 150 chefs and Yasser Jad as its president, is organizing the competition under WACS for the second year in succession, says Gugler, who is also manager menu development and costing, and executive master chef, Saudi Arabian Airlines Catering. “The number of contestants has increased in both live cooking and showpiece categories this time,” says Jad, senior manager, production department at Saudi Arabian Airlines Catering. “The number of Saudi competitors has also marked a significant increase.”