HYDE PARK N.Y. A veritable who's who of leading chefs from across the country flew in to judge the competition that would decide who would represent the United States next year in the biennial Bocuse d'Or.
The competition, held Saturday at the Culinary Institute of America here, featured 12 teams cooking in front of a full house, complete with sign-holding cheering sections.
Click here to see photos from the event.
James Kent, sous chef of Eleven Madison Park in New York City, was declared the winner. Kent, with assistance from fellow Eleven Madison Park sous chef Tom Allan, will go on to compete in the Bocuse d'Or Jan. 25-26, 2011, in Lyon, France.
Although the United States has been represented in the previous Bocuse d'Or events, the U.S. competitor was generally given little support by the American restaurant community. The nonprofit Bocuse d'Or USA Foundation was established last year by Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller and Jerome Bocuse to provide more structure and support for the American competitor.
The foundation organized last weekend's competition, which was judged by a number of well-known chefs, including Paul Liebrant, Grant Achatz, Traci des Jardins, Susan Spicer, Laurent Tourondel, Alan Wong and Eric Ziebold.
Ziebold, executive chef of CityZen in Washington, D.C., said he hoped that up-and-coming chefs in many of the nation's leading fine-dining kitchens would be influenced to compete in the future by seeing their bosses leave town to judge the event.
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected].