The 17th Championship of Canary Islands Absolute Chefs Grand Prize Cabildo de Tenerife already has its ten finalists. The star contest of Gastro Canarias 2023 opens the eighth edition of the event, which will last for three days at the Fairgrounds, from next Tuesday the 23rd and will feature chefs from four islands: Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
After analyzing a hundred candidates, the selection committee, with professionals from both provinces, decided that the participants are Alexandre Ivany Campos (Tenerife); Aulio Cucca (Tenerife); Daniel Castro (Gran Canaria); Frank Gomez (Tenerife); Jose Manuel Fernandez (Lanzarote); Julia Roman Martinez (Tenerife); Mario Yamuza (Fuerteventura); Raico Jimenez (Gran Canaria); Raúl León (Tenerife) and Roberto Couto Fernández (Tenerife).
The competition day will have a prologue on Monday afternoon, when the finalists will make the now traditional purchase at El Corte Inglés, the event’s official supermarket. The ingredients that they acquire will be those that they use to prepare one of the two dishes of the contest, together with the secret componentwhich will be revealed upon arrival at the mall.
The jury is made up of chefs Juan Carlos Clemente and Thomas Leeb, winners of the GastroCanarias Championship in 2013 and 2018, respectively, as well as chefs Diana Marcelino and Joao Faraco; Camir Gómez-Pablos, historian and gastronomic writer of the ULL; Roberto Rivetti, Director of Food and Beverages at El Corte Inglés in the Canary Islands; and the Asturian journalist David Fernández-Prada, creator of El Rincón del Sibarita, Cope’s gastronomic program and dean of Spanish radio.
The organization establishes three prizes of 1,500, 1,000 and 500 eurosfor the first three classified, respectively, with the corresponding trophy and diploma, as well as a prize of 300 euros for the best assistant.
The ten finalists will have 135 minutes to prepare their two proposals. A common dish, with a secret main ingredient, and a free one made with those hidden in the so-called Surprise Box. Tickets for the Gastronomic Fair are already on sale at the online box office, on the website of the Tenerife Fairgrounds.
