rganisation was the name of the game for the winner of the last preliminary round of the Escoffier Cup held at International Imports on Tuesday evening.

In the Hormel Pork round of the competition, Sanjay Leeme of the Lemon Tree Cafe triumphed over Shaker Estephane of the Newport Room, David Chamberlain of the Seahorse Grill and Richard Fernandez of Harley?s Restaurant.

On October 23, Mr. Leeme and three other finalists will go on to compete in Bermuda?s first Iron Chef Cookoff to be held during the Bermuda Culinary Arts Festival.

Each of the four preliminary rounds of the competition focused on a different type of meat. Chefs in this part had to use a Hormel pork tenderloin.

Each of the four participants had their own competition style. While some chefs rushed nervously around the small space, Mr. Leeme moved calmly, making up for any lost time with a skilled knife hand that moved with a blur over mushrooms and garlic.

He had his pots arranged in height order on the stove, and came with his own timer, even though International Imports had its own clock and buzzer on the wall.

It was important for the chefs to keep track of time, since they only had 25 minutes.

Contestants had to submit their recipes and ingredient lists ahead of time. If they forgot an ingredient, or used something not on the list points were deducted.

Mr. Leeme?s dish was literally a mouthful ? roast pork tenderloin stuffed with wild mushrooms, garlic and flavoured goat cheese mousse served with two contrasting sauces alongside a potato souffl? and balsamic glazed apple and fresh asparagus with a garnish of parmesan crust julienne and balsamic reduction.

Mr. Leeme finished just in time, and then had two minutes to ?plate up? or arrange his dish to be attractive to the judges.

?You?ll notice that the chefs use the shape of the plate to create their presentation,? event producer and narrator Stephan Juliusburger said.

?If the plate is long, for example, the food will be arranged in a long, narrow way. We like symmetry.?

When Mr. Leeme finished and his plates were taken away he smiled brightly and gave his colleagues at the back a big thumbs up. He knew he?d done well in the competition.

The noticeable difference between this year and last year, was the increased number of people squashed into the exhibition space.

This year, the audience included a small group of culinary arts students from the Bermuda College.

There was also a large contingent of chefs from local restaurants there to cheer on their colleagues.

There was an air of friendly rivalry between chefs from the different restaurants, and yet chefs from the Princess had no problem helping David Chamberlain of Elbow Beach to set up when he arrived late due to traffic.

As Mr. Chamberlain hurriedly put out his ingredients, his cell phone rang. Mr. Juliusburger answered the call for him saying with a laugh, ?It?s your boss, he wants to make sure you got here.?

?We want people to understand that cooking is a passion for us,? Mr. Juliusburger said. ?Most of us caught the bug early. We want our audience to to know why we do this.

?That is why these chefs stand up in front of you to compete.?

Black pudding featured in at least two entries.

?It was just chance that two of our contestants used black pudding,? Mr. Juliusburger explained to the audience.

?They could have both chosen those ingredients because some ingredients naturally go well together.

?It could also be because some ingredients go through a fad and puddings are going through one.?

Mr. Chamberlain chopped it up and through it in a frying pan, then tossed it with balsamic vinegar before using the pudding as part of the stuffing for the pork tenderloin.

?You don?t need to know everything that goes into blood pudding,? Mr. Juliusburger told the audience. ?It just tastes good.?

Some of the more unusual ingredients used were Mr. Estephane?s (quail eggs) used in his version of bacon and eggs.

For this reporter who happens to be allergic to chicken eggs, but not other types, the quail eggs were much appreciated.

This Hormel pork round of the competition was judged by Peter Lorenz head chef instructor at the Bermuda College, Tina Stevenson of the Bermudian Magazine, and retired chef and cookbook author Fred Ming.

It was little less than a year ago, that Mr. Ming was in a bad car accident on the way to judge last year?s Escoffier Cup.

The Escoffier Cup had a number of sponsors including Hormel, Angus Certified Beef, Tyson Chicken and Elle & Vire. Contestants were required to use at least one Elle & Vire dairy product in their recipes. Local sponsors also included Viking, Bermuda Gas and Butterfield & Vallis.

The actual Escoffier Cup is being crafted by Waterford Crystal. It will be one of four permanent cups for the festival.

The competition is named for legendary French chef George Auguste Escoffier (1846 - 1935).

?He was the king of chefs,? Mr. Juliusburger said.

?He was the first chef who decided to do it permanently.

?He wrote a cookbook around 1917. It was the first cooking guide written for chefs.

?Many of the techniques used today were first standardised by Escoffier.?

One of the nice things about the Escoffier Cup preliminary rounds is that there is a lot of room for audience participation. Chefs cook up larger quantities of their dishes ahead of time so that the audience gets to taste. People from the audience also get to ask the narrator, Mr. Juliusburger questions.

At one point, Mr. Leeme put goat cheese into a blender, an ingredient which wasn?t on the list given to the audience.

?He did give me that ingredient on a revised copy of his recipe,? Mr. Juliusburger explained.

Unfortunately, Mr. Juliusburger had forgotten to give the judges the revised recipe, and he had to hurriedly retrieve it for them.

?I want to know how to make this,? an audience member said indignantly. ?I love goat cheese.?

?He?s putting what looks to be about a quarter cup of goat cheese,? Mr. Juliusburger explained.

?All the chefs are trying to show as many different cooking techniques as they can get into one dish,? said Mr. Juliusburger. ?They know that a dish with more techniques stands a better chance of impressing the judges.?

We are here to watch chefs and celebrate the local talent.

David is very silent and calm.

He puts the meat through a sieve to create an absolutely smooth filling for the Tortellini.

Only ten minutes to go and he appears utterly unconcerned.

?Some chefs practise these dishes 14 or 15 times before they finally compete,? Mr. Juliusburger said.

?By the time you?ve cooked it that many times you?re sick of the dish.?

?I only practised this four times,? Mr. Chamberlain confessed.

When asked the same question, Mr. Estephane ? who is known to practise over and over again ? laughed and said: ?Ask me that question later.?

Mr. Estephane finished with 55 seconds on the clock.

?Food is all about what you like,? said Mr. Estephane. ?Don?t let anyone else tell you different.?Part of the proceeds from this year?s Escoffier Cup will go to Meals On Wheels. The rest will go to The Young Chef?s Development Fund, started by Mr. Juliusburger?s company Syntuitive.

?The money in the fund is accumulating and next year we are hoping to start a programme to place young Bermudian chefs in the kitchens of famous chefs overseas.

?The internship may be anywhere from six weeks to two months.

?We think this will be an invaluable experience for them.?

Winners in the other rounds of the competition included Nick Sauter of the Newport Room who won the Foley?s Wahoo Challenge, Jeff Cristelli of Elbow Beach won the Tyson Chicken Challenge, Ruth Wigma of the Newport Room won the Butterfield & Vallis Shrimp Challenge.

The final will be the Certified Angus Beef Challenge, taking place live in side-by-side kitchens, Iron Chef style starting at 2.15 p.m. on Sunday, October 23rd at the Viking? Village in the Exhibition Ring at the Botanical Gardens.

Sponsors included Butterfield & Vallis, Viking and Bermuda Gas.