world master chefs society newsletter...chef eslam was awarded the title of “ambassador” in 2015...

World Master Chefs Society

NEWSLETTERJune2017

Please keep us updated with all your news in order that we can share it with your fellow Chefs and colleagues.

Greetings Dear World Master Chefs!

World Master Chefs Society - Crown House, 855 London Road, Grays, RM20 3LG, UK t: 0870 7777 448 f: 0870 7777 449 e: [email protected] w: www.worldmasterchefs.com

News from the UKKudos is a privately owned contract catering company in the UK with over 35 years of experience. Kudos can boast of having more World Master Chefs than any other company worldwide.

Their most recent recruit, Master Chef David Cavalier, MWMCS joined KUDOS in 2016 as Food Director and he now works closely with staff at all levels throughout the business. David’s role encompasses most activities within the business; menu writing and costing for events or sales bids, client courting and presentation, food development and innovation for all areas of the business, marketing initiatives, product and ingredient sourcing, operational overviews, contract mobilisations, craft skills training for chefs and unbelievably finds time to cook!

In 1980 David Cavalier gained his first position in catering at the Royal Garden Hotel in London - and since that time has not looked back. To date, his career has spanned over 30 years and has included positions at the Grosvenor House Hotel, The Dorchester, The Berkeley Hotel, The Bell Inn - Aston Clinton (Relais & Chateau), Regal Hotels, L’Escargot, Auberge du Mail (Amboise, France), Mosimann’s, and his own restaurants – Pebbles, Cavalier’s and High Holborn.

These establishments and David share many synergies, not least that they aim and achieve to be the best in their field. Cavalier has received countless accolades: Egon Ronay Stars, AA Guide Rosettes, Gault Milau, Nigel Dempster Restaurant of the Year, Country Restaurant of the Year (Good Food Guide), numerous excellent reviews by industry and non-industry publications, and not least of all, five Michelin stars throughout his career.

He has cooked for many celebrities, personalities, politicians and royalty, but his primary motivation has always been cooking food of the highest quality and refinement. Since leaving the London restaurant scene, David established himself as a leader and innovator within contract catering.

Jon Pryce, Managing Partner of Kudos presenting Master Chef David Cavalier with his WMCS certificate and regalia

channel home grown culinary talent to careers in the Asian food sector and is organised in collaboration with the Master Chefs of Great Britain. Some 20 colleges had gone on to cook off in the finals.

As part of his presentation, Todiwala unveiled a promotional video designed to capture all of the excitement of the last competition, won by University College Birmingham (UCB). It was followed by a first-hand account by Lewis Walker, UCB chef lecturer, of the winning team’s prize trip to Tokyo, Kyoto, Kobe and Osaka, which was sponsored by Panasonic. “We arrived as tourists, were welcomed as VIPs, and left as friends,” he said of their trip of a lifetime.

Cyrus Todiwala said, “With Zest Quest Asia, I want students to learn the depths of Asian food. The whole idea has been to captivate young minds and create geniuses in Asian cuisine. I had always hoped but never realised how the competition would grow. I am here to urge all colleges to grab this chance not only to win a fabulous prize, but to be part of a movement that I hope one day will see classical Asian cuisine on the curriculum.”

Sue Kenyon, Executive Director of PACE, said, “I think Zest Quest Asia and the opportunity it has given catering students is just amazing. There was no way that students could have enjoyed that trip to Japan, and before that to Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, without Zest Quest Asia. They should seize the opportunity with both hands and enter the competition now.” The shortlist will be revealed in early December, with the final cook off and gala dinner to be held in February, 2018 at the Hilton London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5.



(May, 2017) In a direct bid to colleges to start fielding teams in Zest Quest Asia, Master Chef Cyrus Todiwala, FWMCS launched his competition’s fifth year at the annual PACE conference gala dinner on Wednesday, 3rd May at the Hilton Liverpool.

In the presence of over a hundred lecturers and other representatives from Britain’s catering education sector, Todiwala revealed that since the inauguration of Zest Quest Asia in 2013, over 50 colleges of varying sizes had expressed an interest in entering the competition, which is designed to

News from IsraelMaster Chef Jack Hazan, FWMCS coached a team from Italy for the European Championship in Baking in Rimini, Italy. They reached 6th place with Italy winning.

Zest Quest Asia 2018 launches at PACE Gala Dinner



An article has been posted in a daily newspaper called “Nový čas” about Master Chef Miloš Lachkovič, MWMCS. He has left a luxury restaurant and is now preparing healthy food for children in a school’s dining room. How many other school dining rooms can boast of a World Master Chef in their kitchen!

Miloš Lachkovič is also President of Aregala Chefs Without Borders where he’s been dedicated to helping people and supporting charities over the past two years.

Master Chef Milos has been to a lot of different countries to discuss his experiences and procedures with his colleagues. He wants to give a new design to old recipes, but keep the traditional quality of the food.

“We need to cook real food for all children around the world.” He has decided that he wants to serve only healthy food for children. Miloš with his team use high-quality raw materials while preparing food. It’s important what we serve for 820 children in school. “I teach children to treat food as a gift, not a matter of course. Hunger is a huge struggle in a lot of countries I’ve been to” - says Chef Milos - “we should be grateful for the food we eat, not everyone has this opportunity.”

News from Slovakia

Master Chef Paolo Armani, MWMCS works for Compass, Ireland as their Learning and Development Chef in their Healthy Starts programme. The Healthy Starts Programme has engaged with children and parents across Ireland, helping to de-mystify cooking and healthy food. Since 2015, Paolo has led classes from 3rd to 6th grade with over 3,000 school children and their parents engaged across Wicklow, Carlow, Kildare and Kilkenny.

Paolo currently works with three schools in the Tallaght area – Scoil Chaitlin Maude (a Gaeltacht school), Knockmore Primary School and Sacred Heart Primary School. His team works closely with the Home School Liaison Officers to ensure that parents got involved too!

Week 1 involved cooking with the children, week 2, 3 and 4 involved working with the parents as well; showing them how to cook on a low budget, shopping locally and producing meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The focus was on home cooked, healthy food. The team introduced pancakes with berries for breakfast, swapping fizzy drinks for healthy flavoured water, pasta choices for lunch and how to make a curry for dinner from all fresh ingredients.

The Healthy Starts programme has been a tremendous success, getting young people excited about cooking and healthy food. Paolo feels that whilst the clamour around the growing celebrity chefs has been helpful in terms of educating people, it has only worked to a point. “Often parents tell me that they saw a recipe or dish on television, but are worried that if they were to try to recreate it, ‘it won’t look like it does on the telly.’ I tell them it doesn’t have to! The chef has probably cooked that dish more than a 100 times. People are too focused on making food look too arty! Food should be delicious, first and foremost.”

News from IrelandPaolo continues to work every Friday in these schools. This is one of the ways that Compass say they can give a little back to the Community.



Master Chef Kamal Alkhatib, MWMCS (member of our Chapter in Jordan).

“I have been promoted to Culinary Consultant for the Lavender Flavour Restaurants’ Company in Riyadh, responsible for developing the culinary industry and knowledge in all our restaurants. I take care of:

1 - Off White Restaurant, international cuisine, serving 1,200 covers daily, lunch and dinner, one of the iconic brand names in KSA.

2 - Lavash 1 and Lavash 2, purely Armenian cuisine, serving 850 covers daily in the heart of Riyadh.

3 - Armin Restaurant and Armin Express, authentic Armenian cuisine, serving 1,100 covers daily.

4 - Lavender Flavour OSC - we served the first huge OSC for RAMKAH, Equestrian festival belonging to Prince Sultan, 15,000 covers daily for four back-to-back days. It was a very successful event.

5 - Designing (and almost completed), a HACCP planned central kitchen to maintain the perfect consistency to my restaurants.

6 - Opening soon of Armin Restaurant 2, 1,300sm.

7 - Created a handout of 48 pages to be delivered to all kitchen staff explaining my company vision and goals. This handout contains a deep look inside the culinary industry from basics to HACCP menu etiquette, safety in the kitchen place and lots more information since my kitchen team is expanding to over 250 multinational chefs.

There are still many things to be done, but I really want to pay my appreciation to the WMCS and to the owners of my great company, Sheikh Khalid Haqbani and Sheikh Abdullah Haqbani, for their understanding of my vision, as well as my Operations Directors, Mr Mohammad Basha and Mr Alaa Qudsiyeh for their support.

News from Saudi Arabia

Chef Eslam was awarded the title of “Ambassador” in 2015 in recognition of his tireless commitment to the Society in recruiting new members worldwide. We are delighted to announce that he has been granted life membership.

He has also just been awarded the Le Cordon Bleu diploma in London, congratulations!

Master Chef Eslam Ahmed, MWMCS

Tushar Malkani, Mumbai, IndiaExecutive Chef and General Manager

“After graduating from the Culinary Academy of India, Hyderabad, I started my culinary journey with The Leela Group of hotels in Mumbai. I then moved to ITC, The Grand Maratha, Mumbai and from there to The Oberoi, Mumbai. I then diverted my career into teaching and started my new culinary journey wiith ITM, Kharghar as an assistant lecturer for the 1st year students’

basic kitchen training.

Moving ahead in the education field I joined Don Bosco College of Hotel Management in Kurla as a lecturer for advanced kitchen training with only 16 students.

I then received a good offer from a multinational education company in Chennai Everonn Education as Centre Head for the South Zone, teaching short term hospitality courses affiliated to IGNOU University. This was a challenging job which I learned a lot from.

Coming back to Mumbai I joined Café Coffee Day as a trainer to train the new staff in different aspects of how the coffee chain operations run, evaluation of staff growth and a lot more.

After a long break from the food industry I joined Khar Gymkhana as Head of F&B and Executive Chef of five outlets. I also became an official consultant to Supreme Hospitality heading 10 clubs across Mumbai under this company.

For the past year I have been Executive Chef and General Manager of Kaitlyn’s Hospitality (Kaitlyn’s Beer Garden) and am now Culinary Director for Supreme Hospitality who have 17 fine dining sites across Mumbai and the UAE. I also have my own consultancy for destination weddings across the globe.

This year 2017 has been a good one for me as I received World Master Chef membership, Senior membership of the Emirates Culinary Guild, Syrian Culinary Guild, Jury Member of the Korean Food Culture Challenge Cup 2017, Senior Manager of Israel Masterchef Academy, Honorary Member of Mongolian Masterchef Association, Member of the Euro-toques Romania, member of the ACEEA, Romania, lifetime member of the Western India Culinary Association and I was featured in the Sindhian magazine, issues 2016 and 2017.

Having a shoot on YouTube for Chef Sanjeev Kapoor’s Khana Khazana has motivated me and influenced my career in a very positive manner. It has given me the vision to go ahead in life to want to achieve more and give the same positivity to my fellow young budding chefs to try and try until you succeed. After failure there is success and without hard work there is no gain.”

Paul Hoag, Canada

“I have been in professional kitchens for 30 years and counting! I have been in Mom and Pop family restaurants, high end large facility conference companies, as well as opening famous hotels and restaurants.

I have had the privilege to work with the best Canada has to offer in regards to chefs, but have not worked in Europe as of yet. I have competed at the Culinary Olympics in

Germany and am planning to compete in Luxemburg in 2018 with Culinary Team Ontario.

As Executive Chef at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, it is a different avenue in the culinary world. I oversee 640 union staff, have 9 chefs, 23 managers and serve 12,000 meals a day.

It is truly an honour to be a member of such a great society, and share this honour with such great chefs from around the world.”



New Members

Mohamed Mostafa, Egypt

Mohamed Mostafa (centre) celebrated his inauguration as a World Master Chef with members of the Alexandria Chefs Club, Egypt, of whom he is President. The Alexandria Chefs’ Club is focussed on training and the development of the hotel field within Egypt. He is a member of the WACS Association as well as Head Chef and Director of the Food and Beverage Department at Lagoon Tourism Investment

Company in Alexandria, Egypt. Chef Mohamed is the owner of Gastronomy Group Hotel Consultants.

Mohammed Qaisi, Haifa, IsraelExecutive Pastry Chef, Eataliano Dallacosta

Shaikh Raheman, Kerala, IndiaExecutive Chef, The Fog Resort & Spa

Shaikh Raheman was presented with his WMCS jacket and regalia by Master Chef Sylvester Rozario, MWMCS. Chef Sylvester has recently been awarded WMCS life membership in recognition of his commitment to upholding the values of the Society and recruiting new members in India where he has recently relocated from Bahrain.



Muath Hamdan, Sultanate of Oman Chef de Cuisine, Al Baleed Resort Salalah by Anantara

Park byeong seok, Changwon-city, South KoreaExecutive Chef

Jeong jae deok, Ari-Arirang Han-Jeongsik, South KoreaExecutive Chef

Yoo hee young, Seoul, South KoreaChief Chef at Yoono Chubo

Yang dong hwi, South KoreaCulinary Professor, Gimhae University

Ko Beom Seok, South KoreaCulinary Professor, Deegu Health College

Jeon yoo myeong, South KoreaProfessor,Hotel Food Service & Culinary Arts, Consultant Chef, Wellbeing FC Corporation

Ryu jeong yeol, Gyeonggi-do, South KoreaCulinary Professor, Korea Tourism College

Young chull kim, Gwangju, South KoreaFood Service Consultant, Seoyoung University

Buyandelger Dorjgotov, MongoliaFounder of Mongolian Association of Master Chefs

Batbaatar Ragchaabazar, MongoliaExecutive Director of Mongolian Association of Master Chefs

Soo Ik Song, Gyeonggi-do, South KoreaProfessor, Daewon University College

Kim jung soo, South KoreaCulinary Professor, Daeduk University, Daejeon

Sopan Patil, IndiaSous Chef, Tajmahal Indian Restaurant, has been granted Associate membership

Cho se young, Seoul, South KoreaChef, All About Café, has been granted Associate membership

Park ki sub, Busan suyeong-gu, South KoreaChef, has been granted Associate membership

Roman Robinov, IsraelExecutive Chef, Maccabim Restaurant

Anton Kalenik, BelarusExecutive Chef, Minsk Marriott Hotel

Dev S Kasalkar, Maharashtra, IndiaManaging Director and Culinary Instructor at Chefs’ Kitchen Institute of Culinary Arts and Hotel Management

Kiran K Ramakrishnan, Conrad DubaiExecutive Sous Chef

Other New Members

No Longer World Master ChefsINDIANavdeep Sharma

ISRAELJoseph AsfourJohnny Goric

JORDANWasfi AlawnehMaher Ramzi

PORTUGALFernando Correia

New Members

world master chefs society newsletter...chef eslam was awarded the title of “ambassador” in 2015...

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