Hyatt cooking contest finds young talented chefs
A plate of appetizer featuring marinated lobster, shrimp mousse, mango and lime sauce by Damien Selme who won Hyatt hotel's Good Taste Series 2017's national competition.
Park Hyatt Busan's Damien Selme won the contest in Korea
By Kim Se-jeong
At the Grand Hyatt Seoul’s Grand Ballroom on Sept. 1, five chefs were busy peeling pumpkins and slicing mushrooms and pork before frying and boiling them at makeshift cooking stations.
Damien Selme
All chefs, four men and one woman, were from Hyatt hotels in Korea — Grand Hyatt Seoul, Park Hyatt Seoul, Grand Hyatt Incheon, Park Hyatt Busan and Hyatt Regency Jeju — competing in a contest to cook one appetizer and one main dish for 25 people. They didn’t get the main recipes in advance and had three hours to prepare.
The Good Taste Series 2017 is a Hyatt hotel version of MasterChef, a famous television cooking show. It Hyatt International’s annual event aimed at discovering and motivating the talented employees of the Hyatt brands. Award-winning dishes are sold at the hotels, making the winning chefs proud and providing hotel guests a chance to try unique dishes. That day's winner is supposed to represent Korea at the Asia Pacific contest in Hong Kong next month.
Right before 3 p.m., all chefs received a black box containing the five main ingredients which were pork ribs, pumpkin, mushroom, lobster and Brussels sprouts.
At 6 p.m., appetizers were ready and served to 25 judges. Chefs briefly explained the ideas behind their creations. While the judges evaluated them, the chefs got ready to serve the main dishes.
The winner, Damien Selme, recalled he was nervous but figured out what to do with the ingredients fast.
“I practiced once before the competition, without knowing what will be inside the black box. I tried to work on garnishes which could be good with any fish I would get,” Selme said.
“When opening the black box, I was surprised to see seafood, not fish. But lobster was pretty good luck actually. As it was a noble ingredient, you don’t have to cook it in too many ways. So I followed my recipe and made it even simpler. It’s impossible to change or think about recipes on the D-Day because of the short time and the number of plates you have to make. You have to control your recipe by at least 80 percent and then adapt it to the mystery box. ”
He made marinated lobster, shrimp mousse, and mango and lime sauce as an appetizer.
With the pork, he was lucky because he had predicted it to be on the list of secret ingredients.
“Seeing the pantry ingredients (in the grand ballroom before the cooking contest began), I knew I could get duck or pork. I was not really surprised and I used it to cook pork chops in my restaurant.”
Selme made slow-cooked pork chops with mushroom flan, mushroom puree, squash mousseline, Brussels sprouts leaves, asparagus heads and thyme jus.
He successfully managed to complete the mission in time, while some failed to do so.
Judges gave credits for his mushroom puree, which is something pleasantly new to Korean tastes. What distinguished him also was his plating skill, which was sophisticated, proportional and colorful.
He said the biggest challenge was time.
“My priority was to make dishes on time. During only three hours, you’re alone — alone to make decisions, alone to cook and alone to present 58 plates after three hours.”
His culinary experience in France was a big help.
“What I can say without arrogance is that I have a good background and good skills to cook almost any ingredients. I worked with great chefs in France who taught me the basics to perfection.”
He was born in Korea and grew up in France with French adoptive parents. He spent five years working in two hotels in southern France, La Reserve de Beaulieu and La Cabro D’or.
Selme moved to Korea in 2009 and worked at the Korea Furniture Museum in Seoul before joining Park Hyatt Busan in January this year — he is in charge of the French restaurant, Living Room.
Although not the winner, Kim Dae-keun from Hyatt Regency Jeju was inspirational. The 20-year-old chef brought his Jeju-native taste for anchovies to the meat. Lee Keon-jin was the only female chef, her pork dish drawing many compliments.
He thanked his boss and his team from Park Hyatt Busan, but the biggest gratitude went to his wife “who cheers me up every day in my personal and professional life.”
Chefs open a black box five main ingredients to cook with at the Good Taste Series 2017 held in the Grand Hyatt Seoul, Sept. 1. From left are Oh Se-bong from the Grand Hyatt Seoul, Lee Keun-jin from the Grand Hyatt Incheon, Kim Hyeong-jin from the Park Hyatt Seoul, Damien Selme from the Park Hyatt Busan and Kim Dae-geun from the Hyatt Regency Jeju.
Chefs are busy cooking during a competition at the Grand Hyatt Seoul, Sept. 1.