It is with great pleasure that we now launch the schedule for Chef Skill @ IFEX 2008. ChefSkill will without doubt include the most prestigious and exciting culinary competitions in Ireland this year. Our schedule is laid out so that a wide range of culinary skills will be on show on each day of the event. We have focused again this time round on SKILL, and ask each competitor to show as many skills as possible for their particular event. Six state of the art work stations and prep areas will be built to the highest specification in a spectacular arena, so we can once again raise the profile of Culinary Arts in Northern Ireland.

Some times competitions can be construed as elitist and put some chefs off from entering, please don’t be perturbed. As Salon Director of ChefSkill 2008, I urge all Chefs in Northern Ireland, Ireland, UK and further a field to take part in this event and carry the torch for chefs on these islands, by supporting your ChefSkill Salon Culinaire here in Belfast.

This year we have an open door policy on our classes where for example the IFEX Chef of the Year and Student Culinarian of the Year are open to everyone (and not purely confined to Northern Ireland Chefs.)

This is a new and exciting schedule with a good emphasis on Junior and Student Culinary Classes, we have also increased our display classes to include Sugarcraft and Cake Decoration and we are looking forward to the inclusion this time around of NI Chef Ability Award 2008 (InviteOnly). So let’s see the colleges and training providers use this platform to show the quality of their training, strategies and techniques in action.

As with any event of this kind it would not be possible without the support of all our sponsors, so I’ll take this opportunity to say that your support has been very much appreciated.

Don’t forget in 2008 @ ChefSkill we have the NI Culinary Masters 2008. Have you still got what it takes?

It now only remains for me to thank all competitors, mentors, supporters, sponsors and judges in advance and look forward to meeting you at this fantastic culinary event. Thanks also go to all the staff @ Expo Events for making this happen and thank you to my Salon Advisory Panel and of course the continued support of all our sponsors in particular Delni, without their support these competitions would not be possible.