The Fiji Chef Association sincerely apologies for announcing the incorrect names at the gala dinner held on Friday the 11th of November 2016. It is our responsibility to make this public announcement to ensure fairness and transparency as an integral part of our integrity and values. We fully understand that such mistakes could have been avoided and the impact has already generated a lot of disappointments.
The Salon Culinaire Board of Judges for 2016 was a full team of professionals and their fairness cannot be questioned due to their experience, overseen by a World’s Chef Representative as a chief judge.
The results and points were posted during the whole salon for all classes after all judges sheets have been checked to ensure accuracy and the results tabulated. For the first time ever, Chefs were given feedback from the Judges on how their entry was judged so that each competitor could understand and improve their standard. The exceptions are the year classes, which are announced during the Gala Dinner.
As soon as we announced the winners on the evening, the results and records were challenged. We immediately called the media to hold on publishing the results into the Saturday newspaper and we acknowledge with appreciation that the media respected our request.
We make a special apology to:
- Prashneel Kumar from Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort and Kushmeel Narayan from Radisson Blu, as they have been incorrectly announced as Fiji Chef of the Year and Junior bronze winners, when the tabulated point outcome brings them to 4th position.
- To Akshay Gounder from Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort and Asish Kumar from Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa that were announced as Fiji Chef of the year and Junior silver winners, when the point outcome brings them to Bronze winners.
- To Mufeed Ali from Rhum-Ba and Varish Om Prasad from Westin-Sheraton that were by our mistake, announced Fiji Chef of the year gold finalists, when the point outcome brings them to silver finalists.
We understand that the six announced participant are being taken off their moment of recognition and we sincerely apologize.
The scores of the all year classes were very close and we believe it is the right thing to action this quickly and efficiently and correct the results before it becomes too late.
Fiji Chef Association is a member of the World’s Chefs Association (WACS) and we would like to underline that we are bound by International Salon rules and this is why today we will not let this mistake goes unresolved without full transparency and disclosure.
Due to a tabulation error, the finalists on two classes were incorrectly selected and announced while the ultimate winners were omitted.
What were announced on the night of the event were the 2nd; 3rd and 4th positions.
The correct winners were not announced from the printed sheet.
We believe today, after spending 18 hours on cross checking and recounting that we are processing the right outcome for all, regardless of the frustrations that will arise from our error.
We also believe that telling all our competitors the truth about our mistake and result is a form of respect towards their skills, passion and hard work they have engaged in this year’s salon.
Our judges this year did an amazing job, all the scores given were fair and correct.
The reconciliation of the scores were double-checked and when challenged by competitors, re-checked.
The Chef of the Year class outcome can only be revealed at the Gala Dinner, on the same day, and therefore can only be contested or challenged by the competitors once it is publicly announced.
Friday evening gala dinner announcement of results were challenged straight away, which made us start the process of investigation as soon as we could.
We publicly present our sincere apologies to:
- Mr. Chris Zaayman General Manager of Goodman Fielders
- Mr. Clifford Morris Marketing Manager of Goodman Fielders
- Mrs. Doreen Francis Food Service Manager of Goodman Fielders
- Mr. Dixon Seeto, President of the Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association
- Mr. Rob Smillie Moffat Export Sales Manager Pacific
- Ms. Sarah Kymbrekos World’s Chef Association Representative
- Mr. Hans Reiher Chief Executive of Fiji Gas
We are still proud to announce the correct outcome of the 2016 Moffat Salon Culinaire:
Junior Chef of the year 2016:
1st place with Gold medal goes to Nicholas Jordan from Waidroka Beach Resort
2nd place with Silver medal goes to Mufeed Ali from Rhum-Ba
3rd place with Bronze medal goes to Akshay Kumar from Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort
Pastry Chef of the year 2016:
1st place with Gold medal goes to Ritesh Nand from Radisson Blu Resort
2nd place with Silver medal goes to Kirtika Naidu from Sheraton Fiji Resort
3rd place with Bronze medal goes to Kelera Nalewabau from Hilton Beach Resort
Chef of the year 2016:
1st place with Gold medal goes to Mohammed Asif from Shangri-La’s Fijian resort
2nd place with Silver medal goes to Varish Om Prasad from Sheraton-Westin
3rd place with Bronze medal goes to Asish Kumar from Sofitel Fiji resort and Spa
All our congratulations to the nine chefs of the year.
We respectively wish to recall all the perpetual Tanoa’s and wooden artifacts as we will re-present to the rightful winners this week.
Davendra Reddy,
President, Fiji Chef Association.
For media queries, please contact Davendra Reddy on email davendra.reddy@fnu.ac.fj Or telephone +679 9272659
Full Media Release Here:Fiji Chef Association sincerely apologies
