Celebration of green cuisine in Paris

Yesterday, the winners of Eurostar's 'Create a Sustainable Business Dish' competition were presented with their awards at a ceremony held at the Gare du Nord in Paris. YPTE is Eurostar's UK charity partner for the competition, and is joined by Fondation GoodPlanet, the partner in France and GoodPlanet Belgium. The winners, who were all aged 15-19, created delicious ideas for dishes using locally-sourced, sustainable ingredients. Judges included Michelin-starred chef Raymond Blanc, OBE and representatives from the three charity partners.

The challenge was designed to encourage young people to create a lunch or dinner dish, which is not only delicious but well-balanced, seasonal and nutritious, appealing to the discerning business traveller. The contenders were also asked to demonstrate a strong understanding of the provenance of the ingredients and the sustainability of the dish.

Special congratulations go to to Mathieu Coiffard, aged 17 from Perigueux, France, who is the competition's first overall winner. He will be developing his dish with Raymond Blanc, who is also Culinary Director for Eurostar's Business Premier class, and it will be served in Business Premier from April 2018 onwards! Mathieu said "It's a great honour for my school, the École Hôtelière du Périgord in France, and I to win this competition. I’ve worked really hard with the support of my teacher, Loic Perrucaud, to develop a recipe that respects sustainable and seasonal food from our local area while being tasty and easy to serve on board Eurostar. I look forward to joining Raymond Blanc early next year so we can work together to incorporate our dish onto the Eurostar Business Class menu.”

As Head Judge, Raymond Blanc said: “We were all really impressed with the entries for our very first culinary competition and are proud to award Mathieu Coiffard the winning title. His dish best exemplifies a truly sustainable meal, which looks delicious and will make a welcome addition to the Business Premier menu. I look forward to working with him on the introduction of his dish to the Eurostar menu next year.”

YPTE's Director, Peter Littlewood said: "It has been brilliant to see all of the fantastic sustainable recipe ideas devised by young people and we’re really looking forward to seeing even more culinary creativity coupled with sustainability from brilliant young chefs in the future."

Find out more about the 'Create a Sustainable Business Premier Dish' competition here: http://ow.ly/Y2Q330gzYDo or http://ow.ly/Sgb930gzYI6