Moscow, 24 April 2008 — A chef from the Grand Hotel Europe's L'Europe and Caviar Bar restaurants, Alexei Kostichkin from St. Petersburg, took first place at the Russian qualifier for the Bocuse d'Or 2008 haute cuisine competition. 

Now Alexei will represent Russia at the European level of the competition, which will take place in Stavanger, Norway.

The qualifying stage of the international Bocuse d'Or haute cuisine competition in Russia is a professional event on a national scale.  Alexei Kostichkin was named the best out of 20 competitors from different Russian cities, from Novosibirsk to St. Petersburg. 

The competition task consisted of preparing two formal dishes, one with fish (salmon) and one with meat (lamb).  As well as the presentation of the dishes, their taste and the speed with which they were prepared, particular attention was paid to the hygiene and cleanliness of the work surface both during and after the cooking process.

Alexei Kostichkin was born in 1981 and studied at the professional Service academy and the St. Petersburg Institute of Management and Law.  He has worked at the Grand Hotel Europe, the first five-star hotel in Russia, since 2000, and during his time here has gone from being a chef's assistant to a chef at the hotel's best restaurants, L'Europe and the Caviar Bar.  For the past two years Alexei has honed his professional skills under the supervision of the French master-chef Yoann Bernar. 

In 2004 Alexei became a member of the Chaine des Rotisseurs, having won a competition for young chefs from the Russian branch of the association.  He also represented Russia at the international final of the competition in Capetown, South Africa, and represented the Grand Hotel Europe at the Golden Kulina International Culinary and Service Championship.

In preparation for the competition, Alexei's immediate supervisor, Yoann Bernar, developed an entire programme concentrated around studying at Orient Express's Hotel de la Cite in Carcassonne, France, under the hotel's French chef Frank Putelat, the winner of the 2003 Bocuse d'Argent.  The training took place in La Barbacane restaurant, which has a Michelin star.

The Grand Hotel Europe's distinguished French restaurant, L'Europe, where Alexei works, received the "Best Restaurant in St. Petersburg" award in 2006 and 2007, as well as a Golden Hermes statuette in 2007, and for four years running, from 2005 to 2008, it has received an award from the American Seven Stars and Stripes academy.

The Bocuse d'Or is the most prestigious international haute cuisine competition, founded in 1987 by the renowned French chef and restaurateur Paul Bocuse.  The Bocuse d'Or is the equivalent of an Oscar in the world of haute cuisine, and is awarded once every two years in the French city of Lyon.  Chefs from 24 countries who have won the national stages of the competition come to Lyon to demonstrate their mastery.

The professional jury of the Russian stage of the competition included Serge Vieira, the jury's chairman and winner of the Bocuse d'Or 2005; Igor Bukharov, the honorary chairman of the jury; Alain Le Cossec, executive chef at the Paul Bocuse Institute; Jerome Coustillas, trainer and president of Russia's international Bocuse d'Or team; Guillaume Jolie, executive chef of the Hayatt Regency Hotel in Yekaterinburg; and Michel Evan, executive chef of Dantes restaurant.

As well as the opinion of the professional jury, the fate of the participants depended on the votes of an alternative jury which included well known restaurant critics and journalists, such as Anna Tiurina, restaurant reviewer for Your Leisure magazine and Vedomosti Friday newspaper; Darya Tsivina, restaurant critic for Kommersant newspaper; Marianna Orlinkova, deputy editor of Gastronome magazine; Natalya Savinskaya, editor of Chef magazine, and others.