The Montsià Contest: “a grain of rice for the cuisine of the future.”

On Friday May 4 the School of Hospitality and Tourism in Barcelona held the final of the “The rice contest for chefs of the future”, as has been the tradition for the last 5 years.

It is a contest organized by the Rice Growers Chamber of Montsià, and which has the objective of encouraging talent for cuisine among the students of the different hospitality schools in Catalonia, while at the same time it shows the quality of a highly traditional product, as is Montsià Rice.

This year the dish chosen to be elaborated was rice with milk (“rice pudding”), in the following two ways: One way consisted of following the traditional recipe and the other dish was elaborated with a creative cooking recipe.
 
And the winning CHEFS of 2018 are...After various rounds there were twelve competitors who reached the final on 4th May, two from each hospitality school participating.

In the Traditional Dish category, the competitors Ernest Abelló Guillemat and Alex Collado Mallol, from the Cambrils Hospitality School, were the winners, with a prize of € 1,700 for a grant for their studies.

In the Original Recipe category, the winners were Ferran Miquel Sánchez Conesa and Laia Mas Ribera, from the Barcelona Hospitality School, and they took the prize, also of € 1,700 for their studies, with a new version of the rice with milk recipe.

As in other years, and at the same time as the contest, training and lectures were given on cooking and “kilometre zero products” (those grown near the cooks’ kitchens) in the hospitality schools.  The students had the opportunity to meet lecture givers like Jeroni Castell, chef and owner of the Restaurant Les Moles, awarded with one Michelin star.

If you want to see a video of how the day at the contest played out, click here.

To see the photos of our competitors and of their dishes you can access the blog Montsià gallery.