ICELANDIC SALTED COD AND PROMISING CHEF STUDENTS IN THE SPOTLIGHT IN BARCELONA

Icelandic salted cod and promising chef students in the spotlight in Barcelona. Earlier this month, the annual competition of culinary students took place where the best young salted cod chef in Spain was chosen. The competition took place at the ESHOB culinary school in Barcelona.

The CECBI competition (Concurso de Escuelas de Cocina Bacalao de Islandia) was held for the fourth time, and it is a part of the marketing project Seafood from Iceland, which promote Iceland is running in collaboration with SFS and Icelandic fisheries companies.

A total of 16 culinary schools from across Spain participated, including from Bilbao, Seville, Madrid, Barcelona and Salamanca. Each school sends one student to participate in the final competition, but preparations begin early in the year when the schools receive Icelandic salted cod and hold an internal competition to choose their representative. The school that wins the national competition gets the honour of hosting the final the following year.

Similar competitions also take place every year in Italy and in Portugal, the other major salted cod countries. Great ambition and professionalism characterised the contribution of the students, most of whom are between the ages of 18 and 22, and to take their first steps in this field.

The winner of this year’s competition was Bryan Cuintero from CETT Culinary School in Barcelona, who was rewarded with a dream trip to Iceland. In the opinion of the jury, Bryan’s dish stood out for its presentation and taste and it was strongly associated with Icelandic cuisine, including stew and rye bread.

The jury consisted of Carlota Claver, chef at La Gormanda in Barcelona, Ísak Aron Jóhannsson, captain of the Icelandic culinary team, Christina Altozano, journalist at Elle Gourmet, Meritxell Siurana from Gremi de Bacallaners in Catalonia and Xavi Sáez, sales manager at Iceland Seafood Iberica.

The day before the competition began, participants and their teachers visited the Iceland Seafood Iberica processing plant in Barcelona, where they were welcomed with open arms.

Karl Hjálmarsson, Xavi Sáez and Jordi Paloma from Iceland Seafood welcomed the group and introduced Icelandic salted cod and the company’s operations. After the presentation, the group watched a demonstration of the trench of flattened cod and examined the processing itself.

The visit aroused great interest and joy among the culinary students, who were excited to get an insight into different realities and experience the connection between Iceland and Spain in a new way.

In the evening, dinner was served at the restaurant La Gormanda, where chefs Carlota Claver and Ísak Aron Jóhannsson offered guests a five-course meal trip entitled Ice and Fire.