Organised by Sodexo and Rational, this year's competition was the most extensive to date, with a total of over 600 Sodexo chefs from 30 countries applying. Twenty-four of these chefs impressed in the preliminary rounds and went on to compete in the regional semi-finals.

The competition focuses on creative and responsible culinary concepts. The requirements for the final dishes are clearly defined: ‘they must be prepared in a sustainable and resource-efficient manner, and will be evaluated based on criteria such as creativity, technical skill, economic feasibility and presentation’.

The dishes will be cooked using Rational intelligent iCombi Pro and iVario Pro cooking systems, which can also be found in numerous Sodexo kitchens.

These cooking systems help chefs to achieve outstanding food quality and save around 48% of water and 24% of energy, thereby making an important contribution to sustainable processes in professional kitchens.

Martin Wolf, segment director industry catering at Rational, said: “Every year, the Sustainable Chef Challenge shows just how much innovative power there is in professional kitchens. We are proud to be the co-organisers and hosts of this special event, and to support restaurateurs worldwide by helping them to implement sustainable practices with our solution.”