A unique culinary event, or rather 37 of them, took place almost simultaneously around the world last Thursday, whereby 37 of the world’s best chefs swapped their kitchens with those of another chef. The Grand Gelinaz! Shuffle dinners were sold out, reports Fine Dining Lovers. Unfortunately Africa was excluded from the global culinary event.

On its website Gelinaz! is described as a collective of international chefs, which pushes boundaries, performing food, and takes risks. They are hungry to discover new cultures, and to exchange knowledge. Rather than repeat themselves and their dishes, they explore the unknown. They zoom into ‘the beauty of nature, its elegant chaos and unending recreation‘. It is the fifth such event to have been held in the past two years. Each chef had to arrive in the swap city three days prior to the dinner, and was not allowed to bring ingredients from his/her home country. An 8-course menu was to be prepared, with the assistance of the staff of the restaurant,

Guests booked for the Shuffle dinners at identified restaurants, but the identity of the chef cooking for them on the

evening was kept a secret until the very last minute. Chefs traveled to other countries to participate in the Shuffle project, and the chefs did not do a straight swap. So, for example:

*  Chef Rene Redzepi cooked at Chef David Thompson’s Nahm restaurant in Bangkok

*.  Chef David Thompson cooked at Chef Alain Ducasse’s Le Plaza Athénée restaurant in Paris.

*   Chef Alain Ducasse cooked at Lido 88 in Italy.

*   Chef Danny Bowein of Mission Chinese in New York took over at Noma

*   Chef Virgilio Martinez of Lima cooked at Chef Paul Cunningham’s Henne Kirkeby Kro restaurant in Denmark.

*  Chef Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana cooked in New York, at Momofuku Ko

*  Chef Alexandre Gauthier cooked at La Calandre, owned by Chef Massimiliano Alajmo, who in turn cooked at Pavillon Ledoyen in Paris.

*  Chef Mauro Calagreco of Mirazur cooked at Hiša Franko in Kobarid.

What made the project even more challenging for the top chefs is that they stepped into the shoes of the chef they were replacing for the day, including sleeping in the chef’s home, doing school drops, walking dogs, watering the plants, and experiencing any other personal parts of the chefs lives!

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com  Tel (021) 433-2100, Twitter:@WhaleCottage  Facebook:  click here