Bocuse d’Or 2021: Team Denmark takes SILVER

It is a little after 10 in the morning on the first day of the Bocuse d’Or competition at EuroExpo in Lyon. The noise in the arena is deafening. As flags wave in the air and air horns sound, supporters from around the world yell and cheer for their respective teams from the Grand Stand. In the Danish kitchen, things are in stark contrast to the madness of the Grand Stand. Faces are draped in furrows of concentration and dedication as the team waits for their que to start.

What must be going through their heads at this time? They are standing on the greatest stage of them all. This is the unofficial Chef World Championship. This is make or break. They are crowd favorites, being a part of the Danish food revolution and schooled under Rasmus Kofoed himself. Can Team Denmark live up to their role as crowd favorites? In their own minds, of course they can.

At exactly, 10.23, Commis Sebastian Holberg receives one last pat on the shoulder from Danish gastronomic legend Jens Peter Kolbeck who has come to wish the competing teams well. Then Zone F of the Grand Stand erupts as the Danish kitchen receives the starting signal from the head judges. President of the Danish Bocuse d’Or academy, Ritt Bjerregaard, rises to her feet with the rest of the Danish supporters. Music starts blasting over the PA. Confetti cannons erupt, sending Danish flags into the air to chants of “Denmark, Denmark, Denmark.”

Team Captain, Ronni, nods at his commis, smiles, the kitchen comes alive, and the show is underway. Calm and collected they now stand in a mess of thundering noise and a swirl of judges, officials and press mingle around them to capture what is perhaps to be the biggest moment of their lives. From a distance, it looks maddening. And it probably is. But this is what they have been training for. For years. This very moment. This is their time.

This is a competition like no other. This is Bocuse d’Or. The culinary Olympics. For the next 5.5 hours, they are going to give it their all. To prove that they are indeed the best in the world at what they do. To prove that they can create the perfect meal and serve it to the scrutiny of 24 of the world’s most respected chefs. That they can do so with perfect timing and near spotless perfection with their every move monitored by industry professional kitchen judges.

Could they, once again, go all the way? That was the question some commentators, including Denmark’s own Kenneth Toft Hansen, asked themselves leading up to Bocuse d’Or 2021 where the best competitive chefs in the world compete head-to-head to deliver culinary  perfection on time in front of a live audience of 5,000 people. It is far from optimum working conditions, and it is a challenge, to say the least. A challenge reserved for the best and most dedicated of their trade.

The anatomy of a 2021 Bocuse d’Or SILVER dish

Winning the Bocuse d’Or is not an easy task. Even competing in the Bocuse d’Or is difficult. In fact, it is next to impossible. And a lot of teams showed signs of stress along the way in 2021, making mistakes and even not delivering on time. Perfection is what it takes to win Bocuse d’Or, and near-perfection is exactly what was shown by Team Denmark on the day with their two-piece presentation called “The Royal Danish Plant Kingdom.”

The entirety of their effort, in the words of Danish coach Rasmus Kofoed, was based on classic Danish ingredients and flavors, seasonal vegetables and elements of absolute class in terms of presentation.  It consisted, firstly, of an simplistically beautiful three-course takeaway serving:

• Twigs of dried cherry tomatoes, creamy egg yolk and small vegetables in grilled oil with an essence of baked cherry tomatoes.

• Shrimp lightly seasoned with Piment d’Espelette served on a gel of cherry tomatoes, celeriac, and a reduced shrimp sauce.

• Mousse of yoghurt stuffed with liquid cherry tomato essence, raspberry with spruce caramel, lemon balm and acidic vanilla pearls.

All served in an equally beautiful custom-made takeaway box of recyclable materials as a nod to the times and the current Covid-19 situation.

The zeitgeist-inspired opening was followed by an equally impressive platter serving of braised and grilled beef with thyme, caramelized onions and black pepper slathered in a beef jus with salted ramson, lemon verbena and browned butter. Served with a side ragout of Nordic flavors with wild mushrooms and lightly pickled vegetables in a mild horseradish cream, seaweed, tapioca, and edible flowers. As well as several beautiful garnishes including Porcini mushroom gel with cauliflower and beetroot, and kohlrabi and apple with hazelnuts and “crispy leaves.”

To thunderous applause from the Grand Stand, and another wave of confetti, the Danish effort was presented in a way that, for us present, made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and demanded respect from the entire audience in attendance and the millions watching at home. But was it enough? Unfortunately, not quite so.

In what turned out to be a somewhat predictable and very strong Nordic race for the summit, the team of Ronni Mortensen and Sebastian Holberg, beat their Swedish and Norwegian neighbors who won fourth and fifth place, respectively, but rather surprisingly lost the gold to the local heroes from France, who simply proved slightly better on the day. Still, they delivered a menu that was not only beautiful in presentation and spotless in flavor, but also showed a strong national presence in the selection of ancient Danish ingredients and flavors like kohlrabi and horseradish.

On top of that, the jury found, the team played along well in the kitchen, showing finesse, attention to hygiene and limiting food waste, but lost valuable time along the way due to a simple slip and had to rush to present their takeaway box. Kitchen skills and timing are, if not as important as the food itself, then certainly crucial in determining who goes first, second or third on the podium, Danish Honorary Bocuse d’Or Judge, Kenneth Toft Hansen reveals. These factors are, Kenneth says, what kept Ronni from taking first place at the semifinals in Tallinn. And it is, come to think of it, perhaps the exact same thing that happened during the final in Lyon.

Nevertheless, the Danes showed a brave face and were visibly happy to have made it so far in the world’s toughest cooking competition, while Kenneth Toft Hansen added his own sentiments to the tale after the end of a long journey: “You know what,” he said, “I think tomorrow morning he will wake up and realize that he is the second best in the world at his trade. And that must be a pretty damn good feeling.”