Cultural Culinary Olympics in Erfurt Germany

After the Book Fair I’m visiting the ‘Culinary Olympics’ at Erfurt in Thuringen, about 2,5h by train From Frankfurt.

Good food seems a tradition in Thuringia. Even Goethe knows that he was inspired by culinary art.

‘Culinary Olympics’ is the world’s largest culinary exhibition, a cooking competition with this year the participation of 52 nations and about 1600 cooks .

Visiting the presentations of the National Culinary Teams, Individual Exhibitors and National Culinary Teams Military, one cannot avoid to combine some of the plate presentations with typical cultural issues of the participating countries.

Some examples:

This presentation reminds me of the ‘Art Nouveau’ period of the Czech Republic at the early 20th century. At that time the country was part of the Austrian Hungarian Empire.

In this little masterpiece (my opinion) one can find the calligraphical signature of the United Arab Emirates

The panoramic ship of Heviz, about 5km northwest from the Balaton Lake, reminds me at this place well known for the healing thermal waters of the famous Lake.

This young cook Marco Squizatto from Camposampiero in Padua, Italy, created ‘War and Peace’ in chocolate. A philosophical approach of the Culinary Olympics.  The sculpturing part he learned from an artisan in his hometown. The sculpture he made during the night. During the day he has to work in a restaurant.

Another picture of the little guy picking the flower in his hand while saying: War/Peace.

The ‘Snake Charmers Charm’ is another masterpiece in chocolate from the USA I find.

Just enjoy like I did. And if you are realy interested in the medals the participated countries wins till October the 22th just go to the Olymiade der Köche, the homepage