PHOTO: Astana hosted international cooks contest

DELARUK Astana 2012 international cooks contest was held in Astana on April 18-20, Tengrinews.kz reports. Over 100 cooks from Kazakhstan, Russia, Moldova, Ukraine, Serbia, Poland, Austria, and other countries competed for the Best Cook title in Korme exhibition center that looked like one huge giant kitchen. A jury of almost 30 people came to Astana to judge the cooking masterpieces. The juries include cooks from France and Austria. This year’s new nomination is called Kazakh kitchen in modern style. The participants are to fantasize with traditional Kazakh delicacies. “Being the organizers, we are supplying them with products: kazy, lamb and horse meat. They have to make a dish that would first of all have national roots and characteristics. And secondly, it should have modern European presentation. It is not a secret that all traditional dishes are quite fat, many would forgo them these days. That’s why we are asking for a modern presentation to make them lighter and closer to the lifestyle of the modern citizens, who don't spend time eating beshparmak for 3 hours,” one of the organizers Natalya Koretskaya says. (Beshparmak is made of chops of boiled meat mixed with boiled noodles.) The contest was participated by young cooks from professional schools, hotels and restaurants and the cooks who cook for ministers, deputies and different officials. The contest was made more complicated by the rule prohibiting the participants from using their own products and spices. There have been no reports on the winners, though. By Renat Tashkinbayev