The Bailliage held its 24th National Final of the Jeunes Chefs Rôtisseurs (JCR) Competition at Le Cordon Bleu in the Istanbul Özyeğin University.

Ten competitors arrived from all over Turkey. The young chefs were offered a black box with unusual mandatory ingredients this year, such as whole duck and whole rabbit. Neither product is used very often in Turkish kitchens. Following JCR international rules these ingredients were shared at the end of April, giving the young chefs the opportunity to work on their skills preparing the special items.

At 7.30am the kitchen jury assembled. The competitors started writing menus. The 10 young chefs were divided in to three groups to each prepare a starter, main dish and dessert. Once prepared then began the task of the nine members of the tasting jury.

Rabbit still proved difficult to prepare!

Sometimes there’s a clear winner, but the scores this year were so close with hardly any difference between them.

However 19-year-old Musa Karateke from the Fairmont Istanbul Hotel will represent Turkey in the International Final taking place in Mexico City this October.

Runner-up was Ogün Dağıdır from Liman Istanbul Galataport. In Third Place was Baransel Arslan from Kilimanjaro Restaurant.

I would like to thank all the competitors, our jury members and especially Le Cordon Bleu Istanbul for helping make this event a big success.

Vive la Chaîne!

Yves Léon
Bailli Délégué