The Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) is proud to join hands with the Chefs Association of Malaysia (CAM) and The Malaysian Food & Beverage Executives Association (MFBEA), in organizing Culinaire Malaysia 2007 from 22-25 August 2007 in KL Convention Centre.   The inaugural Culinaire Malaysia was first held in 1993 alongside the Food & Hotel Malaysia Exhibition and ever since then, the bi-annual event has been held in conjunction with FHM.

“ This is our 8^th successive event and over the years, the event has progressed rapidly with tremendous response and support from the public, participants, sponsors as well as many individuals in the industry,” says MAH President, Y.Bhg. Datuk Mohd Ilyas Zainol Abidin. “ Over the years, the Ministry of Tourism have spent millions in promoting Malaysia’s tourism both locally and internationally. Culinaire Malaysia is among the many events that MAH is involved ardently in complementing this fierce campaign,” he added.

“ One of our prime objectives is to display the high culinary standard of the Malaysian hospitality industry and to recognize and motivate individual chefs who excel in their field of culinary arts, ” says Culinaire Malaysia 2007 Organising Chairman, Samuel Cheah.

“Culinaire Malaysia serves as a platform for professionals, apprentices and students to compete alongside their peers. Creativity sets one hotel apart from the other and it is in Culinaire Malaysia that these skilled employees i.e. chefs, bartenders, etc from the hotel and restaurant industry can showcase their artistic talents,” he added. Culinaire Malaysia also aims to levitate the food and beverage scene, which plays a weighty part in hospitality, especially in Malaysia where the people live to eat the best food in town!

The competition is divided into two main segments i.e. Team Competition and Individual Competition. The Team Competition will be a Hot Cooking event, highlighting the best of our Malaysian cuisine as well as Team Ice Carving. The Individual Competition offers a wide range of display events ranging from flair tending, mocktail/cocktail, table setting, pastry, cold platters, artistic as well as practical events in the hot cooking category.

World-renowned culinary competitions like Ika Hoga Culinary Olympics in Frankfurt Germany; Igeho Basle, Switzerland etc have to a certain extent influenced the standards of culinary arts in the industry. Hence, we hope through the competitive nature of Culinaire Malaysia, we are able to cultivate and mould more skilled chefs, bartenders and waitpersons in the country, maybe even to gain some world recognition in due course. Ultimately our goal is to set higher standards of quality in the hospitality industry and eventually the tourism industry of Malaysia.

“ MAH as the main organising body wishes to incite more young Malaysians to look at the hospitality industry with great ambition and fascination. We want to create and instil interest among the public to regard the industry as a skilled and professional one. It is only through events such as Culinaire Malaysia that we are able to show off the artistic talents of our professionals as well as to further improve the quality of service in our hospitality industry,” says Y.Bhg. Datuk Mohd Ilyas Zainol Abidin, MAH President.