At the Kursaal Bern, on June 5, 2023, the finalists of the Swiss cooking competition “Der Goldene Koch” prepared a fish dish and a meat dish for five and a half hours under the eyes of a top-class expert jury – chaired by Franck Giovannini.
This year’s final was accompanied on social media and with an additional episode on Blick TV.
And the winner is: Shaun Rollier (27), Chef de Partie at Hotel Restaurant Valrose, in Rougemont! The young chef prevailed in the final and secured the coveted title “Goldener Koch 2023” with his culinary creations.
Shaun competed against four other chefs and in the end it was clear: he is the one! Congratulations!!
• 2nd place: Daniele Angelosanto (28), Sous Chef, Restaurant de l’Hôtel de Ville, Crissier
• 3rd place: Mario Garcia (32), Managing Director, mariogarcia GmbH, Horw
• 4th place: Robin Höfer (28), Sous Chef, Restaurant Ossiano in the Hotel Atlantis, Dubai
• 5th place: Janic Mühlemann (29), head chef, Restaurant Giardino in the Kursaal Bern
The public audience prize “Publikumsliebling Goldener Koch 2023” was awarded to Daniele Angelosanto. This prize goes to the candidate who received the most votes in advance via online voting.
Colin Gervais, who supported Daniele Angelosanto, also received an award: “Bester Commis 2023”.
Five finalists were fighting for the title “Goldener Koch 2023” on June 5: Janic Mühlemann, Shaun Rollier, Mario Garcia, Daniele Angelosanto and Robin Höfer.
Everyone prepared a fish and a meat dish for 12 people. The fish dish, consisting of char, had to be prepared with three separate vegetarian garnishes, a single sauce, taking into account cream cheese and hazelnuts, and had to be delivered 4 hours and 15 minutes after take-off.
1 hour and 15 minutes later the meat dish had to follow, consisting of Swiss loin of veal and two Swiss veal tongues as well as three separate garnishes, a single sauce and taking into account rhubarb and pink pepper.
The finalists had a total of five and a half hours at their disposal, during which a commis was allowed to assist them. The candidates presented both dishes on platters.
The renowned tasting jury included Silvia Manser (Truube, Gais), Pierre-André Ayer (Le Pérolles, Fribourg), Marcel Skibba (Schloss Schauenstein, Fürstenau), Christian Nickel (Parkhotel Vitznau, Vitznau) and the winner of Der Goldene Koch 2021, Paul Cabayé (Restaurant Glacier, Grindelwald).
Franck Giovannini (Restaurant de l’Hôtel de ville de Crissier) was the jury president. César Troisgros (Restaurant Troisgros, France) could also be won as an honorary member of the jury.
The semi-finals: a short retrospective
Eight participants in “Der Goldene Koch 2023” competition cooked on Monday, January 30, 2023 at Trafo Baden.
As with the last event in 2020/21 – especially as a result of the corona pandemic – this year’s semi-final was also broadcast online.
Ten episodes were shown on Blick TV from April 20, 2023 and everyone could follow who would be one of the five lucky finalists.
“What was new about this year’s digital semifinals is that more episodes have been produced, so we were dedicating a separate episode to each individual candidate. In this way we got to know the respective personality a little better in private and outside of the kitchen. In line with our values of giving both the art of cooking and the participants a lot of space and thus giving the cooking profession a platform that is as effective as possible in terms of publicity,” says Samuel Zaugg, project manager of Der Goldene Koch. “We experienced a high-class semi-final with a lot of emotions.”
The following eight candidates demonstrated their skills in Trafo Baden:
• Daniele Angelosanto (28), Sous Chef, Restaurant de l’Hôtel de ville de Crissier, Crissier
• Ernest Bardhoku (26), Chef de Partie, Domaine de Châteauvieux, Satigny
• Christoph Bieri (32), head chef, Spital Riggisberg Insel Group, Riggisberg
• Sandra Böhm (24), head chef, Restaurant Exer, Zurich
• Mario Garcia (32), Managing Director, mariogarcia GmbH, Horw
• Robin Höfer (27), Sous Chef, Restaurant Ossiano in Hotel Atlantis, Dubai
• Janic Mühlemann (29), head chef, Hotel Eden, Spiez
• Shaun Rollier (27), Chef de Partie, Hotel Restaurant Valrose, Rougemont
To be prepared for the semi-finals: a vegetarian starter and a meat dish with Swiss chicken
In contrast to the grand finale in Berne, the chefs competed in the semifinals without commis and arranged the dishes on plates. They had to prepare two dishes – an ovo-lacto vegetarian starter with Swiss beets and a meat dish with Swiss chicken – for eight people each. Horseradish and mustard also had to be worked into the starter, and corn and rapeseed as ingredients for the chicken.
The chefs had 1 hour 40 minutes for the vegetarian starter, the meat course had to be handed in 2 hours later. Total cooking time was 3 hours 40 minutes, prep time 45 minutes. Star chef Ivo Adam acted as jury president and moderator of the semi-finals simultaneously.
Also in the renowned semi-final jury were Pierre-André Ayer (Restaurant Le Pérolles Fribourg), Silvia Manser (Restaurant Truube Gais), Christian Nickel (Park Hotel Vitznau), Marcel Skibba (Restaurant Schloss, Schloss Schauenstein) and Paul Cabayé (winner of Der Goldene Koch 2021).
About “Der Goldene Koch”
As the largest and most established live cooking event in Switzerland, Der Goldene Koch is THE Swiss culinary arts championship. It takes place every two years in the Kursaal Bern. The cooking competition was launched more than 30 years ago. Since 1991, the title “Der Goldene Koch” has been awarded a total of 19 times.
The reigning title holder is Paul Cabayé, who won the competition in May 2021. He is currently employed at Restaurant Verena in Olten, which has been managed by Dave Wälti since November 2022. Before that, Cabayé was responsible for the Luxembourg 1 Michelin star restaurant “Les Jardins d’Anaïs”.
Before he went to Luxembourg, he worked under Franck Giovannini as chef de partie meat in the “Restaurant de l’Hôtel de Ville” in Crissier. His other professional stations include the restaurants “La Table des Rois” (Yannick Franques, Beaulieu-sur-Mer) and “L’Oxalys” (Jean Sulpice, Val Thorens).
BE WTR: Official Water Partner “Der Goldene Koch”
Thanks to our partner BE WTR, who is a sponsor of this cooking competition, we could follow this year’s finals.
BE WTR is the first sustainable premium water brand that upgrades local tap water. The young company aims to promote ecological water consumption and contributes to better hydration thanks to its technological and design water systems.
The brand develops and sells water systems for private and professional use. BE WTR systems can be found in leading restaurants, hotels, offices and homes.
BE WTR also develops and operates on-site bottling plants for large hotels and venues, allowing local, filtered tap water to be bottled in reusable glass bottles.
The company is committed to sustainability, collaborating with local environmental projects through the 1% for the planet platform and in the process of completing its B Corp certification. Based in Lausanne with offices in Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, France and the United Arab Emirates.
Find out more about Der Goldene Koch here >>> and discover innovative, sustainable water solutions by BE WTR here >>> And below, some more impressions from this year’s “Goldener Koch” cooking competition.
