The Bocuse d'Or is a prestigious, biennial world chef championship where teams of chefs from around the world compete in front of a live audience to demonstrate their culinary skills and creativity. The teams consists of one chef and one commis chef. 

The Bocuse d'Or is named after the renowned French chef, Paul Bocuse who founded the competition in 1987. The Grand Finale is held at the SIRHA Lyon Food and Hospitality Expo. View here.

In 2025, Chef Will Mordido and our New Zealand School of Food and Wine graduate, Sam Linstom represented New Zealand. The backup commis chef who also attended the competition was Sam Gradowski-Smith, also our graduate. Sam G was the official backup and required to learn all the dishes just as if he was in the competition.

New Zealand's plate theme

Stone Bass is enhanced with a roulade and seaweed-citrus farce, featuring lobster and Marlborough Sounds wakame, paired with Mint Pea Verde and Horopito Celeriac Crumb, finished with pickled New Zealand Nasturtium Buds.

The dish includes a terrine of celeriac and brown butter purée, layered with Whangarei Elephant Black Garlic and Savory pastry. Celery is transformed into an ‘emerald pendant’ with celery gelée, cumin-infused celery heart compote, and a Northland Tabasco celery and tomato relish in a celery leaf tartlet. The dish honors traditional Stone Bass harvesting with a ‘Fish Hook’ purée of pumpkin, carrot, and celeriac, completed by a tamarind lobster and Te Anau saffron sabayon, reflecting their Filipino and New Zealand heritage.

New Zealand's Platter Theme

Honour the Wild Roe Deer with four preparations:

• venison saddle glazed with Pinot Noir and boysenberry, stuffed with foie gras and black garlic;
• spiced tenderloin with cranberry and consommé veil;
• venison shoulder and foie gras pie
• deer milk ricotta ravioli with venison consommé.

The dish is completed with a red wine poached pear petals and boysenberry compote, inspired by the deer’s natural habitat.

Bocuse d'Or Social Commitment Award

The Bocuse d’Or Social Commitment Award is presented to a team taking part in the Bocuse d’Or to reward their social involvement in areas related to food and catering. In 2025 Team New Zealand and Team Chile won this award.

Professor Tracy Berno of AUT Auckland University of Technology travelled to Lyon to be part of the judging panel for the Social Commitment Award and was delighted to announce that Team New Zealand and Team Chile were the winners.

Interview with Sam Linstom, commis chef

What surprised you most in preparing for Bocuse d’Or?

Sam: I’d say preparing for Bocuse working alongside Chef Will, just constantly trying to push ourselves and be better every training session doesn’t matter if it’s small improvements at a time or figuring out better strategies for a runthrough and the order that you do things in. Mainly I’d say working under the pressure and becoming aclimatized to it because it’s a different kind of pressure than chefs see everyday.

What are the high points of travelling to an international competition?

Sam: Travelling overseas for a competition representing your country is different in a way that we are likeprofessional athletes, it’s just in our own sport!

Travelling to Europe for my first time and to the biggest culinary competition in the world was an awesome experience and meeting many new people including legendary chefs. One of the definite high points was receiving my chef jacket, putting it on for the first time, suddenly the whole experience in France felt real.

What surprised you most at the competition in Lyon?

Sam: I’d say the thing that surprised me about the competition most was how much training with the competition replay on full volume helped us block out the crowd and allowed us to focus.

If you can imagine 3000 people making so much noise for the whole 5 1/2 hours we were cooking along with cameras in your face... it gets a bit overwhelming and you need to block it all out and focus of the tasks to push through.

One of the other surprises was seeing how the other teams prepared the different the foods from other countries. Each team had their own unique influence but I could definitely understand why the Scandinavian countries lead the World’s food trends.

I think this is because they are bringing new ideas and love to push the boundaries of modern gastronomy whether it is the shape of their moulds or their varied cooking methods they’re consistently high scoring at this competition over many years.

What advice would you give to your younger self or someone else looking to enter competitions?

Sam: My advice to any young chef looking to get into the competitive culinary world is you have to understand how important training really is. Practicing and honing your skills is vital but also learning where to push the boundaries; whether it’s new techniques in your cooking, an improved version to plate-up and especially how clean you work. It all counts!

Sam Linstom, March 2025

Sam is currently chef de partie at The Hotel Britomart, Kingi Restaurant.