Plants as 70% of Ingredients? Introducing MIRACORE™ at an International Competition Preparation Workshop

Association de Promotion de la Gastronomie Française(APGF)

This association aims to promote restaurant culture, which is based on the collaboration of chefs, service staff, and diners. They organize competitions in Japan to select representatives for the international French cuisine competition "Prosper Montagné World Culinary Competition" and the international service competition "Georges-Baptiste World Service Competition."

This year, as part of preparations for the next world competition, three cooking workshops will be held, and this was the third of them.

Shocking Changes for Next Year's Competition

The theme of this workshop was "Cooking without Animal Ingredients." At the beginning of the session, President Osawa revealed the background of this theme.

"For the first time in over 70 years of Prosper Montagné, the theme of 'Vegetal' has been adopted. The rule is to make recipes with 70% plant-based ingredients."

This is why the theme was chosen for this workshop.

For chefs to excel in the competition, they must keep animal ingredients to 30% while preparing multiple dishes within the time limit, without compromising on taste or appearance.

Due to this unprecedented condition, chefs entering the competition will need new skills and knowledge.

In this workshop, which serves as preparation for the competition, Chef Hayashi recreated his winning 2019 recipe, updated to meet the "70% plant-based" condition.

Chef Hayashi's Demonstration

In every competition, a specific ingredient is designated.

In 2019, it was decided to use duck as the main ingredient, and this time, the demonstration was performed with the same main ingredient, duck, and three side dishes (garnishes).

Adjusted to the rule of the next competition of keeping animal ingredients to 30%, Chef Hayashi used only duck as animal ingredients, making almost all garnishes with plant-based ingredients, including seasonings.

He used plant-based ingredients from Fuji Oil, such as soy milk cream , soy milk butter, and MIRA-Dashi™ to create three stylish garnishes that looked like pastries.

Main dish: "Duck stuffed with spices in red wine sauce"

Lentil and cabbage dome

Used MIRA-Dashi™, soy milk cream and soy milk butter.MIRA-Dashi™ was used for seasoning and glazing.

Corn flan

Used MIRA-Dashi™ and soy milk cream. White miso was also used to create a cheese-like richness.

Chestnut and cep cream

Used MIRA-Dashi™, soy milk cream and soy milk butter. Each part was assembled like a cake using these ingredients.

Judges only take one bite during the competition, so it's all about captivating them with that single bite.

However,

"Judges have delicate palates, and creating impact with simple salty flavors can be risky,"

which makes it challenging!

Chef Hayashi advises,

"It's essential to create a balanced umami flavor and make an impression with the natural taste of the ingredients. Even with plant-based ingredients, it's important to draw umami from multiple sources."

MIRA-Dashi™ is one effective ingredient for this purpose.

"It doesn't have an overpowering taste, which makes it easy to adjust and create your own flavor."

He advises participants to think of MIRA-Dashi™ C100 as a broth and C200 as beef consommé to easily incorporate it.

The Need for Plant-Based Ingredients Internationally

We also introduced and provided tastings of MIRA-Dashi™ on the day, and some participants were surprised, saying,

"I didn't know there were such plant-based ingredients!"

Some restaurant chefs even said they wanted to use it immediately.

At the end of the workshop, Chef Hayashi encouraged participants to apply the knowledge gained not only for competitions but also in their daily operations.

In hotels and restaurants with many international guests, preparing plant-based menus is becoming common.

We felt that MIRACORE™ could be an item that supports chefs' creativity in responding to such international plant-based needs.