The Young Chef Olympiad (YCO) is one of the largest and most prestigious Culinary Olympiads held across 4 Indian states, namely, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Kolkata. This year, the competition is organized and hosted by the International Institute of Hotel Management (IIHM) as it approaches its 5th Season.
The competition brings together young, talented student chefs from over 61 countries and takes place on the 28th January 2019.
Over the past few years, we were immensely proud to have two of our students represent Singapore in the Young Chef Olympiad. Namely Mathew Tham Jia Jun, who was named champion of the 3rd edition of YCO 2017 and Andre Lim An Rui, who was one of the 10 contestants out of over 60 contestants, that earned a place to compete in the Grand Finals in the 4th edition of YCO 2018. Way to go Matthew and Andre!
“Matthew Tham Jia Jun of YCO 2017 (Left) and Andre Lim An Rui of YCO 2018 (Right)”
This year, Henry Tan (23) will be representing At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy as a YCO contestant. Hungry to win, he is ready to take the stage and hopefully bring home the trophy and championship title for Singapore, once again!
Upon completing his studies with Singapore Polytechnic, he pursued a career inbusiness for a short period of time before deciding that this wasn’t the right pathfor him. However, a story worth telling would be what made Henry decide topursue an education in Culinary Arts which warmed our hearts, reminding us of childhoodmemories and the little joys of homecooked food.
Apart frombeing an extremely hardworking and independent individual, whatmade Henry stand outamong the many other students in the academy was his determination and focus tohone his skills to further improve himself as a young chef.
Henry Tan Jun Ming –Singapore’s representative for the 5th Edition of the Young Chef Olympiad
A Grandmother’s Love
Growing up, Henry was mostly brought up by his grandmother as both of his parents spent a lot of time at work. It is no wonder that one of his greatest source of inspiration was actually the dishes that his grandmother would wholeheartedly cook for his meals every day.
He hopes that someday his dishes would not onlytaste good but would also make others feel “at home”, just like how his grandmothers cooking made him feel all sorts of warmth and fuzziness.
Reality TV to Big Dreams
Apart from his grandmother, Henry was alsohooked onto the hit cooking series ‘MasterChef US’ which he has been diligently following since the airingof the first season. With each episode ending up more captivating than theother, his passion and interest only grew stronger. He would always be in awe by how each dish wascreated and served on the table, especially those that were home-cooked.
It was there and then when he decided that he was going to pursue a profession in cooking!
“I look forward to competing amongst the best ‘young’ chefs from around the world inYCO 2019.” Says an excited Henry. Through this competition, he hopes to be able to showcase his skills and to meet and learn about the various cuisines from people of different cultures. Not only is this privilege going to be rewarding, but it will be an experience that would be hard to forget, no doubt – A definite milestone in Henry’s culinary journey.
A strong Support System
Henry’s mentors were greatly moved by the sincerity in his learning journey and continuously challenge and encourage him each day until the day of the competition. All the chef instructors even gather together to taste the dishes that Henry prepared for the competition and gave their feedback on how he could further improve on his skills.
Chef Song Wong (Left) and Henry Tan (Right)
We even had the honour of having Chef Elvin from Singapore Chef’s Association pay a visit to the academy for a food tasting of Henry’s competition dishes. He gave Henry invaluable feedback and advice that would help gain a competitive advantage over his competitors during YCO. Thank you Chef Elvin!
With his mentors by his side and his family’s support, Henry will be sure to triumph!
Chef Elvin from Singapore’s Chef Association
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