"Food Construction Kit": the National Centre RUSSIA hosted a chef competition

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An open day of the Institute for Public Catering of the V.M. Gorbatov Federal Research Centre for Food Systems of the Russian Academy of Sciences "Food Construction Kit. New Solutions for the Catering Market" and the YUZH Group of Companies was held at the National Centre RUSSIA as part of the exposition "Region-2030. Platform of the Future". It began with an expert discussion, and continued with a competition of chefs, where they practically demonstrated what and how to cook by applying the so-called food construction kit.

The main theme of the programme was the use of ready-made frozen ingredients to make menu dishes. Anton Dyachenko, brand chef of Yulia Vysotskaya's culinary studio, Yuri Shashkov, brand chef of the ALLWIN company, and Pavel Morgunov, brand chef of HoReCa, took part in the competition.

The dishes were evaluated by a professional jury of Irina Korshunova, Senior Director for Sustainable Development at Vkusno&Tochka; Yegor Panin, Head of R&D and Brand Chef at Yandex Lavka; Alexander Rozhnikovsky, Head of ready-to-eat food division for B2B, founder of the "Grabli Box" and "Grabli Food Bar" brands, and Gennady Sukharev, Brand chef of Integrita company.

"Usually, a five-point scale is used to evaluate ready meals. What is evaluated: the appearance, because the serving is very important for the finished dish -- namely, the way a person sees the dish on the plate plays a great role; the aroma of the dish — it must be balanced; the taste — here the balance is also important, because the ingredients used in the sauce and in the side dish should taste good with the main dish (meat, fish). In addition, it is important that the taste matches the declared dish. Besides that, the texture is also evaluated -- whether ingredients of the dish are juicy or dry. A taster is a special profession," Oksana Kuznetsova, Director of the Federal Scientific Center for Food Systems, emphasized.

The winners of the competition were Pavel Morgunov, brand chef of HoReCa, and Yuri Shashkov, brand chef of the ALLWIN company.