Internationale Kochkunst Ausstellung
Culinary Olympics
The Internationale Kochkunst Ausstellung, commonly called the "Culinary Olympics",
is the oldest and most prestigious international
culinary competition in the world. It is
being held in Erfurt, Germany, for the first
time in it's 100 year history. Since it's
founding as the Internationale Kochkunst Ausstellung (IKA) in 1896, all competitions were held
in Frankfurt until 1996 where it was moved
to Berlin.
IKA was founded for the purpose of promoting
education and tourism, with the goal of sharing
ideas and culinary techniques with other
nations. It began in 1896 when a group of
German chef visionaries had a dream of an
international cooking event that would cross
language barriers and communicate world trends
in cuisine. Those early pioneers thought
tourism would increase if people became more
aware of the quality of cuisine of their
native homeland, as well as by observing
chefs in kitchens where language differences
were not a barrier to communication. Their
dream became a reality and today the event
is so large it has been dubbed the "Culinary
Olympics". The success of this concept
is apparent in the growth of this and other
international competitions which now take
place on every continent and have made significant
contributions to the global food industry.
The first IKA was held in 1900 and included
four nations competing in a local cooking
contest at the Frankfurt fairgrounds. Since
that time the event has grown to more than
750 chefs from 31 nations, and has events
for individual competitors as well as national,
regional, student, and military teams.
"Culinary Olympics" is the common
name for the IKA Quadrennial Culinary Competition
and is adapted from the German phrase meaning
"Olympiad of the Cooks" used since
World War II by the founding organization
Verband Koche Deutschland (VKD) or German
Society of Cooks. The original name of the
organization was the International Verband
Koche Deutschland until Hitler banned all
international societies during World War
II.
The United States culinary teams have competed
in IKA since 1956 when they were clearly
the underdogs. But the Americans soon established
themselves as world class cooks. The 1960
Team, headed up by Paul Laesecke, captured
the world championship on a menu of Maryland
Fried Chicken, Prime Rib, and Stuffed Baked
Potato cooked in aluminum foil. By 1988,
the American team had won the prestigious
hot food competition three times in a row,
and still hold the record for the most consecutive
wins.
Results of 2000 IKA Culinary Olympics
United States Brings Home the Gold!
Results of the Culinary Olympics Berlin 1996
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