Kaitsuko Official Partner: Young Walloon Chef Competition 2025

A Partnership to Support Youth and Culinary Excellence

We are proud to have participated as an official partner in the fifth edition of the prestigious Young Walloon Chef competition (La Jeune Toque Wallonne), organized by the IFAPME Luxembourg-Perwez-LHV Asbl Centers and Horeca Formation Wallonie. This culinary excellence event was held on February 18, 2025, at the IFAPME center in Libramont.

The Young Walloon Chef: A Competition Focused on Short Food Supply Chain

This year, the central theme of the competition highlighted the short food supply chain, a philosophy that perfectly aligns with our company values. As advocates for responsible and local gastronomy, we were delighted to support an initiative that promotes regional products and sustainable practices.

The competition brought together young culinary talents, apprentices, and culinary students at least 17 years old from Belgian hotel schools and training centers. These future chefs tackled demanding technical challenges with specific constraints:

• Zero waste commitment
• Exclusive use of local products (no foreign ingredients)
• Prohibition of semi-finished or finished products
• Working with seasonal products

The Challenges: Technique and Creativity in Focus

The six candidates selected by the jury prepared two complex dishes:

1. First dish: A preparation based on salmon trout to be filleted and crayfish, accompanied by a mandatory emulsified sauce (cold or hot)
2. Second dish: A creation featuring guinea fowl and sweetbread, with an imposed garnish basket (kohlrabi, turnips, black radish) and a starch of choice

These challenges, taking place over a total duration of 4 hours, tested not only the participants' technique but also their creativity and ability to showcase local seasonal products.

Our Contribution: An Exceptional Prize for the Winner

As an official partner, we had the pleasure of offering a set of five Japanese knives from our Chef Tanaka - Forest Wood collection to the competition winner, Mr. Bastien Georges from IFAPME. This prize represents our commitment to supporting the next generation of Walloon culinary talent and encouraging excellence in this field.

Why We Supported This Competition

Our company shares the fundamental values of The Young Walloon Chef:

• Commitment to short food supply chains: We firmly believe in the importance of supporting local producers and reducing the carbon footprint associated with food transportation.
• Quality training: IFAPME and Horeca Forma Wallonie work to train tomorrow's professionals according to an alternating model that combines theory and practice, an approach we fully support.
• Sustainable culinary innovation: The competition encourages responsible practices such as zero waste and the use of seasonal products, perfectly aligned with our vision of environmentally respectful gastronomy.

A Memorable Event

The awards ceremony took place on February 18, 2025, at 3:00 PM at the IFAPME center in Libramont. We would like to congratulate all participants for their talent and creativity, as well as the organizers for the quality of this event.

We invite you to stay tuned for our upcoming initiatives supporting Walloon gastronomy.

For more information on our commitment to the culinary sector and our other partnership actions, please don't hesitate to contact us directly.