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Jerome Ianmark Calayag, representing the UK and Northern Europe, is the winner of the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition 2019-21, following a thrilling and celebratory three days in Milan, where a sense of community, belonging and friendship was tangible.
Calayag's vegetarian dish of 'humble vegetables', packed with flavour, wowed the Grand Jury of Mauro Colagreco, Andreas Caminada, Clare Smyth, Enrico Bartolini, Manu Buffara and Gavin Kaysen, securing his victory as the best young chef in the world at this year's event.
The overwhelmed young chef collected his award in front of an assembled audience of fellow chefs and food enthusiasts, who got to their feet to applaud him at the prestigious ceremony held at Palazzo del Senato in Milan.
"I just wanted to express how it has been and what I have been learning through the years," said the beaming young chef after hugging David Ljungqvist, his mentor and boss, on stage. "The taste of the food I enjoy eating was on that plate."
His signature dish showcased carrots with such effect that Ljungqvist described the dish as "a slap in the face, in a good way," going on to say that Calayag "told me from the beginning I want to have the best flavours and do the best food if I can do it as a vegetarian dish. I’m still surprised. We’ve made it 15 times and every time I try it I’m still blown away."
Calayag said he chose to showcase a vegetarian dish because that's what he loves to cook and eat. "I believe that everyone should be cooking and eating more vegetables," said the young chef. While other chefs have pivoted to plant-based menus post-pandemic, Calayag first created his signature dish back in 2018. "The pandemic hasn’t changed the way that I think about food, it amplified my belief in what I am doing and what I can affect and how many good things I can do in this world,” he said.
Asked why he chose to build the dish around the everyday carrot, much like winner Mark Moriarty chose to highlight the potato at the inaugural competition in 2015, he said he was 'inspired' by the root vegetable. "Carrots are so delicious and packed with umami and sweetness. In Sweden we have so many carrots."
"The message is vegetable-focused. It is now time that we should think more sustainably and also act. You can cook very good food with such humble ingredients."
While tonight was about winning, the three days of the Grand Finale were all about the journey. “I met some amazing people, everyone is so nice and ambitious. I learnt so much, things that I never knew much about," reflected the young chef on his time spent with his peers and mentors in Milan.
While it's back to work for him on Tuesday, the young chef has big ambitions for the future. Whether it's opening a restaurant, in Sweden or elsewhere, he sure that he will do it sustainably. "I think it’s going to be vegetarian. It depends, maybe there will be sustainable ways of producing food that is sustainable and it’s not vegetables.”
He chose his boss at Portal Restaurant in Stockholm as his mentor, which surprised Ljungqvist as he was aware of his lack of Michelin stars and competition experience, but accepted the role with grace and determination. "He’s good, he doesn’t know how good he is. I admire him as a person so much. Yeah, I have so much to say, I like him so much as a person. He’s making me a better person every day. I hope I can be as good as him,” said the young chef of his mentor and friend.
Addressing any young chef thinking about entering the competition in the future, Calayag had this advice: “Do it before you think you are ready, you shouldn’t wait until you are ready as you might never do it and that’s not good. You miss every shot that you don’t take."
Previous winners include Mark Moriarty, the winner of the inaugural event S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2015, Mitch Lienhard who won in 2016, and Yasuhiro Fujio who was 2018's winner.
Congratulations to all the chefs who took part in the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy 2019-2021.
