Team USA Takes Gold in Bocuse D’or, AKA the Culinary Olympics

While America’s reputation is currently taking a beating in many areas, its culinary representatives have come out on top as winners of the Bocuse d’Or, the Olympics-style French culinary competition that occurs every two years. The highly-regarded award was announced today in Lyon, France, after two full days of cooking in the kitchen arena. Norway took home silver, while Iceland landed third place.

In 2015 Team USA took home the silver, an unprecedented honor for America (previous attempts had won no higher than sixth place). This year’s team included chef Mathew Peters and commis Harrison Turone (both of Per Se), and was trained by head coach Phillip Tessier (former executive sous chef at The French Laundry and winner of the silver medal in 2015), and chefs Gavin Kaysen, Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, and Jérôme Bocuse.

The stressful competition includes challenges like “Theme on a Tray,” wherein competitors have five hours and 35 minutes to prepare a recipe with a chosen main ingredient, arranged fussily on a tray “à la française.” It’s all done live, in front of bleachers of fans. Here are the full details on this year’s challenges, with special additions in celebration of the competition’s thirtieth year.

So, congratulations to the winners on this major accomplishment! Perhaps next year there’ll be someone besides a white dude on hand to help represent the culinary fabric of America. But still, yay!

• U.S. Takes Home Silver Medal in Bocuse d'Or 2015 [ESF]
• Group of Dudes Predictably Represents USA in Food Competition, and More Intel [ESF]