Latvia's name is written in the history of world culinary Nils Gevele and his team finished 14th in the world finals.
The Bocuse d'Or is a biennial world championship for chefs. Named after Chef Paul Bocuse, the competition has been running since 1987, the year he conceived the idea for the championship. It is often referred to as the Chefs' Olympics.
The Latvian team in Lyon was represented by chef Nils Gevele from the restaurant "Ferma", commis Agate Batraga and coach Svetlana Riškova, as well as Dinārs Zvidriņš, the Latvian candidate for Bocuse d'Or Europe in previous years, who represented Latvia on the jury. Nils and his team won the Latvian selection in September 2023 during Riga Food, thus qualifying for the European selection. The Bocuse d'Or Europe selection took place in Trondheim in March 2024, where the team demonstrated their abilities perfectly by coming 12th. The top ten teams qualify automatically for the World Finals. Each year, 2 wildcard tickets are awarded by the Competition Committee to countries that have particularly distinguished themselves but have not reached the final on points. This time, China and Latvia were selected. The jury highlighted Latvia's great progress in the six years since its first participation in the Bocuse d'Or. A total of 24 teams from all over the world competed in the World Finals.
The second challenge for the plate was announced in mid-November, which required preparing rock bass and lobster, demonstrating celery root and stems, and making lobster sabayon sauce.
Alongside this, the team created their video business card, made a tray, recipe sketches and menus to highlight a shared vision for the dishes.
The competition took place in Lyon over two days on 26 and 27 January. Twelve countries competed on each day, with the Latvian team starting on 27 January. The cooking time is 5 hours and 35 minutes in total. The first dish is returned to the plate after 5 hours and 5 minutes and then the tray after 30 minutes. The competitors are judged on the taste of each dish and on their technique, thus receiving three marks.
The winner was French chef Paul Marcon with 2070.5 points, silver went to the Danish team with Sebastian Holberg Svendsgaard (2017 points) and
bronze to Sweden with Gustav Leonhardt (1988 points). Norway finished fourth, Great Britain fifth and Singapore sixth.
Nils Gevele and his team finished 14th with 1696 points, an outstanding result for the Latvian team, competing in the final for the first time. Overall, the team's performance is highly appreciated for achieving such high results in such a short time. Nils managed to do everything he had planned and his technical work in the kitchen was particularly appreciated.
"Dreams come true if you want them with all your heart! Two years ago, when I was in the audience, I told myself that next time I would be on stage in Lyon representing Latvia. Now that I am part of the world's elite chefs, it's hard to comprehend what I've been through. All this would not have been possible without my teammates - Agate, Svetlana and Dinar, the Chefs' Club, my family and my sponsors. Thank you to all the fans who supported us in Lyon and in front of the screens! And believed that Latvia should be in this elite group of world chefs. A big thank you to LIAA, without whose support all this would not have been possible." Nils Gevele
Our team's future plans include preparing for the next national selection in 2025.
In the future. We will continue to look for partners who also want to develop with us
Latvian gastronomy. And of course we wish all catering professionals,
to one day be part of the Bocuse d'Or, if not as participants, then as fans, because this
event is like the Olympics for our industry.
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