Maltese chefs to compete in cookery “Olympics”

Malta’s National Team of Chefs has left for Erfurt, Germany, where this year’s edition of the World Olympic Cookery Olympics is being held next week. The team led by Chef Patron, Joseph Vella will be competing alongside other World Association of Chefs’ Societies (WACS) teams during the three-day event. The Malta team will be presenting a varied menu made up of traditional as well as classical ingredients.  The starter consists of a melody of salmon, pasta and fish while the main course is ta splendid presentation of rabbit, a local delicacy for Malta; the sweets consist of a colorful array of chocolate and forest fruits.

Maltese Culinary heritage could be described as a hybrid of Mediterranean dishes having been subjected to numerous occupations by colonialists and various occupying forces.

Recent studies into the history of Maltese food and culture have concluded that the Maltese were, by tradition, agriculturalists. Most of their staple dishes emanate from fresh vegetables and wheat, a fact which is still evident today, since the supply of fresh market fruit and vegetables is available from every town and village and is very popular with the Maltese or Gozitan housewife. The introduction of rabbits and various meats and poultry can be attributed to the influence left behind by the Knights of St. John and the Romans, who arrived many centuries before them.

For a number of years there was a clear distinction between the urban cuisine and the rural cuisine in Malta, and, despite the island’s size, there are a number of distinct variances in the method of preparing or presenting traditional dishes in some towns and villages.

Ever since tourism became one of the island’s principal economic activities, the catering industry has sought to create an internationally acceptable brand of Maltese cuisine.  For years, the only chefs on the island were former British Services personnel whose repertoire consisted mainly of British or French Cuisine. The variations to cuisine have been introduced and practiced by chefs over the past decade, as a result of a strategy to diversify the tourism markets for Malta and also due to the initiative by several chefs and catering managers to set up an association that could give credibility and recognition to a profession which had not been recognized as a vocational career in the past.
 
Today, the Malta Cookery and Food Association is the only member of WACS in Malta and Gozo, it is the only association that can represent the National Team of Chefs in Malta and it is an association which believes in inclusiveness, networking and continuous development for the chef and catering manager. The association today has its own website, a quarterly magazine which is distributed to all members and the industry decision makers as well as chairing the working group for WACS Europe in proposing appropriate training or educational programs which could be financed through the EU.

Malta’s National Team of Chefs have already been awarded two gold medals, earlier this year, in Ireland and Budapest; the trend seems to be in their favor, but, as they say, “The proof of the Pudding is in the eating!”  Let’s must wait and see.
 

MALTA (eTurboNews)
 

October 15, 2004   Posted in: Malta