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of Aberdeen Woods Conference Center for International Chef of the Year Competition |
| St. Louis, MO - 1 March 2007 - Chef Leonard Elias of Aberdeen
Woods Conference Center in Peachtree City, GA came one step closer to claiming
the coveted Copper Skillet award by edging out four other American chef
finalists at the USA Cook-off competition at the James L. Allen Center
in Evanston, IL.
The International Association of Conference Centers is gearing up for its fourth annual Copper Skillet competition which recognizes the best chefs in the industry. The final competition will take place at IACC's annual conference to be held April 19-22 at The Heldrich in New Brunswick, NJ. Chef Elias prepared his winning dish based on the guidelines provided for this year's cuisine theme of Thai. Thai cuisine is among the world's most popular and flavorful cuisines incorporating a unique blend of particular tastes: hot (spicy), sour (piquant), sweet, and always highlighted with citrus (lemongrass and lime). Although popularly considered as a single cuisine, Thai food is really better described as four regional cuisines corresponding to the four main ingredients of the country, Northern, Northeastern, Central, and Southern. . 
Neil Pompan, President of the International Association of Conference Centers of North America, (right) presents a plaque to winning US chef, Chef Leonard Elias of Aberdeen Woods Conference Center in Peachtree Center, GA. Similar competitions have been held over the past couple months around the world - including Australia, Denmark, Sweden, The Netherlands, UK and Canada - all competing for the honor of sending their winning chef to represent their country at the final competition in April. The Canadian cook-off competition, recently held at the BMO Financial Group Institute for Learning, awarded Chef Assadang Langsub of the Spencer Leadership Centre the winner and he will represent Canada at the finals. Chef Langsub also prepared a Thai dish based on the same guidelines. Contestants were provided with 50 pantry and staple ingredients to create their Thai-themed dish. Two secret ingredients (chicken and shrimp) were unveiled just prior to the start of the competition and both ingredients were to be incorporated into the final dish. Neil Pompan, President of the International Association of Conference
Centers of North America (and CFO of EMCTotalSolutions ) remarked, "the
conference center chefs continue to raise the bar on this competition
Each year, the competition grows in popularity and it provides a great
spotlight for the excellent chefs and culinary teams that help make the
entire experience at IACC conference centers so outstanding."
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| Contact:
James M. Mahon
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