Lyon, 23th February 2007
Dear Friends,
I would like first of all, to thank you again for your involvement in the tremendous success of this 20th anniversary of the Bocuse d’Or. Once gain, our event has given the proof of its ability to bring up the best of gastronomy.
For 20 years, our competition has been gathering every two years the whole cooking family. Its only goal is to promote the very best of our profession. However, it is also synonymous of always greater and greater challenges. It is one of the most demanding contests for all the candidates and teams. It requires a lot of work and sacrifices for a very coveted trophy. Please be sure that the International Organization Committee knows about this!
Therefore it is not surprising that sometimes tensions come up. We then have to face them together and try to better the organization of our event and to adapt it.
Back to their countries, the German and Danish teams expressed some accusations against the French candidate, winner of the 2007 Bocuse d’Or. A loop has been created on the web, people have been talking a lot about this matter, criticising the organization of the competition or accusing the French candidate.
The International Organization Committee quickly gave its position January 26th with a press release which I am very happy to enclose with this letter (Brief ist hier: www.gourmet-report.de/Bocuse-d-or-2007_7877.html ).
I am personally very surprised that all this is being done out of the rules we established (article 15). Why didn’t anybody submit a claim when it was time for it? It seems to me that this matter is now closed as nobody thought it was worth it to request anything using the only official way. I’m therefore expressively asking you to be respectful of the rules and of your commitment to do so when you signed the “Rules agreement form” in the application file of your country.
However, if there was any irregularity or misunderstanding, if changes must be made in our rules to avoid them in the future, we definitely need to discuss them together in the most positive way and certainly not through the Medias to start with. The International Organization Committee will be happy to hear all of the jury members willing to express themselves of this matter.
Our strength relies on the outstanding success of our event and on all the hard work we have put in. Let us not open the door for anybody to destroy what we have been building together for 20 years!
Looking forward to our next meeting and thanking you in advance for your full support,
Culinary yours,
Paul Bocuse
Président Fondateur du Bocuse d’Or