A team of Scottish Chef’s are double celebrating as they clinched two silver medals at the prestigious IKA Culinary Olympics held in Stuttgart Germany. The team representing Scotland, won silver in the ‘Restaurant of Nations’ category and the ‘Chef’s Table’.
The IKA Culinary Olympics, a gastronomic event of immense scale, attracted over 1,200 participants from 55 countries, who prepared more than 7,000 high-quality menus across 17 competition kitchens or showcased their creativity in culinary exhibitions. The Culinary Olympics take place every four years, and is the oldest and most highly regarded culinary event in the world.
Team Captain Executive Chef Orry Shand said: “The team has worked relentlessly not only over the last ten days but the last 14 months prior to the culinary Olympics to be able to achieve this fantastic result of double silver which places Scotland 10th in the world rankings. The standards at this competition are of the highest level and go up a gear every time the competition comes round again. The team can be very proud of their achievements at IKA 2024. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the sponsors and supporters without them none of this is possible.”
Team being awarded medal on stage.
The team was comprised of award-winning chefs Orry Shand (Aberdeen), Fraser Cameron (Dumfries), Craig Palmer (Aberdeen), Craig Cooper (Kirriemuir) , Alanna McCarthy (Inverurie) , David Millar (Edinburgh) , Jamie Mackinnon (Stirling) , Rory Taylor (Aberdeen) , Andrew Clark (Aberdeen) and Simon Perkins (Edinburgh).
Five of the Chef’s work for multi award winning North-east catering and hospitality firm Entier Ltd. Commenting on team Scotland’s achievements, Entier CEO and board member of Scottish Chefs Peter Bruce said: “ I’m immensely proud of what Scotland has achieved in the culinary Olympics, it can not be underestimated the skill level and tough competition involved from some of the best chefs and culinary talent in the world. The Scottish team of chefs performance was simply outstanding and it is a testament to their culinary expertise, hard work and dedication that they secured not one but two silver medals.
Peter continued: “What makes me even prouder is that five members of the team work for Entier as Chefs, either offshore working for our energy clients, here in Aberdeen working with clients across the city or in our Wilde Thyme events division working with clients across Scotland. I can not emphasize enough how proud everyone is at Entier that we have five of the best chefs in Scotland working for us.