Last week I was among a group of bloggers and media invited to witness Ryan Stone’s dry run for the 2011 Bocuse d’Or. The Bocuse d’Or is a prestigious culinary competition held in Lyon France every two years. To reach the 2 day competition each chef must win a qualifying competition in their own country, and 24 winning countries make it to the final event. Each chef has 5 and half hours to prepare one meat platter and one fish platter. Each platter must have 3 garnishes and 12 servings. Points are given for taste (40), presentation (15) and national identity (5). The 2 day event is huge and attended by over 4000 people and is said to have the electric, stress-inducing atmosphere of a football game.

Representing Canada, Chef Ryan Stone is on loan from his day job as Executive Chef at the West Coast Fishing Club. Ryan trained under Schef Scott Jaeger of the Pear Tree, who represented Canada in 2007, taking 7th.

In the trial run Ryan and team worked with great precision and produced two very impressive platters. It is very rare to get a chance to taste competition food at this level (at least for me) and I will be honest in that I found it more than slightly confusing. The technical work that goes into each bite is hard to fathom, the flavors are punchy and complex and the small tastes we had were not enough for me to begin to understand what I was eating. It was an exciting experience, but akin running through an art gallery. Mijune (followmefoodie) somehow did a lot better, you can read her post here.

Ryan was very candid about the years of hard work and preparation that go into creating these platters, as well as the tremendous logistics, effort and stress that will go into competing under the noses of Michelan star chefs and journalists in the thousands. I wish Team Canada the best of luck!!

note: on request I have left out photos of the finished platters and removed them from flickr