USA Wins Silver For The First Time In Bocuse d'Or Culinary Competition

The Bocuse d'Or held every two years in Lyons, France, is known as the Olympics of cooking competitions, where 24 teams from 24 countries around the world send their best chefs to compete in one of the world's most prestigious cook-offs. This year, for the first time ever, Team USA placed second, with Sweden finishing in third, and the perennial favorite Norway winning the whole competition. The chefs on Team USA were led by their coaches, chefs Grant Achatz, Gavin Kaysen, and Gabriel Kreuther; and the Bocuse d'Or USA board was led by Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, and Jerome Bocuse, among others.

Team USA worked together to present the judges with a stunning meat platter, consisting of barrel-oak roasted guinea hen with sausage of guinea leg confit, white corn mousse, and black winter truffle; "Garden of Sweet Peas" with French Laundry garden blossoms and herbs, sugar snap peas, and black trumpet mushroom panade; a "Beehive" with boudin of smoked guinea liver, grapevine honey, pistachio "Pain des Genes," wild fennel buds, and topaz wine glaze; black truffle consommé with ragout of gizzard and heart "confit," steamed custard, and flowering cress; white corn "nest" with buttered corn pudding, crisped corn silk, and "petit" popcorn, and preserved chanterelles with salad of frisée and garden blossoms, pickled huckleberry, and "foie gras" jus.

Team USA is recruited, trained, and funded by the ment'or BKB Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to "inspiring culinary excellence in young professionals."

"I'm honored to have represented the USA at one of the most well-respected culinary competitions in the world, surrounded by esteemed culinary talent from all over the globe," said team member chef Phil Tessier in a statement. "Training for the Bocuse d'Or was a humbling process, and we diligently prepared as best we could."