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Congress Promotion

Message from Honorary Life President
Monday, 01 June 2009

Honorary President

Bill Gallagher

SOUTH AFRICA

Mob: 083 625 1720
Tel: + 27 11 482 7250
Email: BillG@southernsun.com
Website: http://www.saca.co.za

Dear colleagues,

The first of June and already we are halfway through 2009 a year that will be remembered for many different reasons not least of all for the need to look after what we have be it our health, wealth, or happiness. All perishable things if not nurtured and looked after likewise is knowledge and keeping abreast of what is happening around the world, down your street, and most importantly with in your profession. The culinary arts continues to move forward with new ideas new cooking methods and ground-breaking chefs inventing recipes that we could only dream about, molecular cuisine has advanced the science of cookery to a new level and created quite a stir in the young minds of our junior chefs. This is exciting and brings a new sense of creativity to the kitchen and to us as professional chefs, in the same breath however I do applaud these masters of the new cuisine such as Heston Blumenthal and give them immense credit for the interest they have created in the technology side of creating beautiful new age food. However logic brings me back to classic cuisine and the fundamentals that we were taught in our apprenticeship on the basic principles of cookery and we must never lose sight of this wonderful heritage that goes with being a chef. So the challenge is to match the best of the old and the new, what is in fashion and what can be determined sometimes as old-fashioned using our knowledge of ingredients as the basis on which to build. To the young chefs of today I challenge them to learn more about ingredients and the opportunities that you have to utilise them in so many different ways, the new global world allows us to use products from every country, to learn ethnic cuisine and the entire mystique around the most exotic of herbs spices fruits and Seafood’s. This season’s have almost disappeared with fresh food being air freighted from one continent to the other, this I find just a little sad as the essence for me of any dish is the quality and the freshness of the ingredients used , can you really beat local produce?. The wonderful thing about cookery is that you can never say you know everything it is a lifetime of learning and a wonderful journey of taste; looking back on the glorious career of masters of the modern day such as Paul Bocuse how fortunate we are to have such leaders and visionaries who can match the classic and the innovative. There’s so many talented chefs around the world today that have given the noble art of cookery such prestige and worldwide prominence and exposure on TV screens and glossy magazines that it has been said to be a chef in the year 2009 you could end up being more famous than a rock star in the 1980s . Let’s continue to promote our profession and continue to grow and spread the knowledge of cuisine.

Warmest regards

Billy
Dr hc Billy Gallagher
Honorary Life President World Association of Chefs Societies