Bocuse d'Or's 12 USA Semi-Finalists Announced!

Though the next Bocuse d'Or, aka the bi-annual culinary Olympics, won't take place until the beginning of 2011, one can never be too prepared. And so, that is why master chef Daniel Boulud gathered a crowd of press, chefs, and general restaurant world glitterati at his New York flagship Daniel this afternoon to announce the 12 semifinalists for Team USA. Each candidate, along with a sous chef, will compete against one another next February at the Hyde Park campus of the Culinary Institute of America for a chance to represent the US in 2011 in Lyon—the new Lyon ampitheater built just for this event will hold 8,000. Last year, the French Laundry's Timothy Hollingsworth headed up Team America and placed just sixth, though that's the highest the US has ever placed. Boulud and Sir Thomas Keller are hoping for a better showing this year. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. A look at who made the preliminary list:

Luke Bergman, The Modern, New York, NY
Danny Cerqueda, Carolina Country Club, Raleigh, NC
Michael Clauss, Daily Planet , Burlington, VT
Kevin Gillespie, Woodfire Grill, Atlanta, GA and Top Chef
James Kent, Eleven Madison Park, New York, NY
Mark Liberman, Roxy’s Black Sheep, West Palm Beach, FL
Christopher Parsons, Catch, Winchester, MA
Jennifer Petrusky, Charlie Trotter’s, Chicago, IL
John Rellah, New York Yacht Club, New York, NY
Jeremie Tomczak, French Culinary Institute, New York, NY
Andrew Weiss, The Chef’s Workshop, Las Vegas, NV
Percy Whatley, The Ahwahanee, Yosemite, CA (also a semi-finalist last year)

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