'Cook for change! Sustainable Chef Challenge': RATIONAL and Sodexo continue to promote sustainable cuisine
Achieving sustainability in professional kitchens requires more than just good ideas; it requires continuous learning, international exchange and practical concepts. This is precisely where the ‘Cook for Change! Sustainable Chef Challenge’ by Sodexo and RATIONAL comes in. The fourth edition’s final took place in London at the end of March, with the highest level of international participation to date. More than 500 Sodexo chefs from over 40 countries submitted their concepts, once again establishing the competition as a global platform for sustainable cuisine.
At the heart of the challenge lies a key question: how can sustainable dishes be developed that will impress in the competition and can also be produced reliably and efficiently in large quantities in professional kitchens on a daily basis?
Against this backdrop, ‘Cook for Change!’ is not a traditional cooking competition; rather, the focus is on the targeted development of talent. RATIONAL, the co-organiser and world market leader in thermal food preparation, plays a decisive role in this. Through training sessions and workshops, RATIONAL experts support participants in refining their dishes and concepts so they can be reliably replicated in everyday kitchen operations, including using modern technology such as the iCombi Pro and iVario Pro.
“‘Cook for Change!’ also thrives on international exchange,” says Martin Wolf, Segment Director for Catering at RATIONAL. “When chefs from different countries share their approaches, an environment emerges in which everyone can learn. This goes far beyond individual recipes: culinary standards rise, dishes improve in quality, and new concepts emerge, which benefits consumers and the environment.”
On the final day, the participants presented their dishes to an international jury of industry experts. The criteria assessed included taste, the overall concept, the sustainability approach and the feasibility.
In the ‘Impact at Scale’ category, Randall Prudden from the USA impressed the jury with his pumpkin dish featuring roasted maitake mushrooms and mole negro. Gordon Carberry from Ireland won the ‘Culinary Innovation’ prize for combining creativity, technique and scalability in his dish of miso-roasted parsnips, wild rice, chickpeas and aquafaba mayonnaise.
The highest award, the ‘Cook for Change! Chef of the Year’, was awarded to Robert Janse from the Netherlands. According to the jury, his smoked kohlrabi dish with miso, white bean cream and kombucha beurre blanc demonstrated craftsmanship, the sustainable use of resources, and an exceptional flavour profile. Through his use of RATIONAL appliances, he also demonstrated how innovative kitchen technology can effectively support creative cuisine.
“It was brilliant to watch the chefs using iCombi Pro and iVario Pro to combine efficiency and sustainability,” said Markus Paschmann, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at RATIONAL. “The winner, Robert Janse, used our units perfectly. In addition to creativity, a strong understanding of RATIONAL was a key advantage that contributed to the win.”
A recording of the award ceremony is available on youtube.com, and more information about RATIONAL and the cooking systems can be found at rational-online.com.
