Malaysian junior chefs win gold in culinary fest

The Malaysia National Youth Culinary Team brought home a gold medal from the IKA/Culinary Olympics, one of the world's oldest and largest international culinary art exhibition. This event is the first time Malaysia participated in the Junior Team category and won a gold medal for the "Restaurant of the Nations" and a silver medal for the "IKA Buffet" categories.
The winning Malaysian junior team were Alicia Tay, Pang Jin Yong, Amanda Cheah, Tsen Jun Yan from Sunway University School of Hospitality. On the other hand, team members Amirul Ashraf and Ilya Dayana are students of the Kolej Yayasan Pahang school.
The team clinched the medals by showcasing the best of Malaysian flavours with 'Rasa-Rasa Malaysia', or a taste of Malaysia for both categories. Entries include a warm trout and seafood mousseline with 'laksa' sauce, lentil and trout fritters, and pickled salad with puffed tofu. The main course was coriander and ginger-torch flower crusted chicken with tamarind sauce, five-spice roll, chicken ravioli, stuffed cabbage, squash puree and market vegetables. For dessert, the team presented chocolate mousse with honey madeleine, hazelnut cake, passion fruit - banana compote, yuzu sauce and whipped ganache.
The team's mentors were chefs Soon Pau Voon, Lee Han Ying, Chong Wei Tzeh and Patrick Siau — all teaching fellows at Sunway.
Siau was the coach of the Malaysia National Pastry team which won first place at the World Pastry Cup (Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie) in France last year.
The IKA/Culinary Olympics held last month saw over 2,000 chefs from more than 60 nations participating in the culinary competitions. The German Chefs' Association, Verband der Köche Deutschlands e.V. (VKD) hosted the event.