2011 Bocuse d'Or Winners Announced: Or, Another Reason to Move to Scandinavia

Bocuse d'Or

Winners were announced yesterday in the Bocuse d'Or, the legendary cooking contest held in Lyon, France. And if you're Scandinavian, it's time to get out the flags, since Nordic chefs pretty much ran the chefs' tables. First place, the 2011 gold trophy and €20,000 in prize money went to chef Kofoed Rasmus Rasmus Kofoed of Denmark. The second place winner was Sweden's Tommy Myllymäki, and third place went to Gunnar Hvarnes of Norway.

"This is not a reality television show, it's a real competition," said chef Daniel Boulud, the chairman of the Bocuse d'Or USA Foundation, who founded the competition in 1987. "It's important for the restaurant industry to give young chefs an ambitious challenge and it's the responsibility of established chefs to support them."

The Bocuse d'Or USA Foundation began on Tuesday and took place over two days at Sirha, the Salon International de la Restauration, de l'Hotellerie et de l'Alimentation. This year's competition, in which 24 candidates (12 teams of 2 chefs) competed, was judged by 24 chefs. The candidates had 5.35 hours to prepare two dishes, using Scottish lamb (the meat dish) and monkfish, crab and Scottish langoustine (the fish dish). The U.S. competitor was James Kent, sous chef at Eleven Madison Park, who competed with his commis Tom Allan. The competition has been dominated over the years by Scandinavian and French chefs. If you needed another reason to plan that trip to Copenhagen.