Jan Smink, chef patron of Restaurant Smink, Wolvega, Netherlands.

Jan Smink, chef patron of Restaurant Smink, Wolvega, Netherlands.
© Taittinger / Photo provided

Dutch Chef wins the prestigious 55th annual Taittinger culinary prize

Jan Smink is crowned winner of “Le Taittinger” prize, one of the most prestigious in the world of cooking.

Elite Champagne house Taittinger knows more than a little about the art of fine dining. Their superb wines have graced the tables of some of the top restaurants in the world for decades, and the link with haute cuisine goes right back to its founder Pierre Taittinger in the 1930s. Their international culinary competition has been running for over half a century with the explicit aim of recognising talented young chefs, and today “Le Taittinger” is regarded as one of the top awards in the profession. Past winners read like a roll call of the great and the good of modern gastronomy, such luminaries as Joël Robuchon, Régis Marcon and Michel Roth.

Joining their illustrious ranks this year is Jan Smink, chef patron of Restaurant Smink in the small town of Wolvega in the Netherlands. It was third time lucky for Jan in the competition, but he won through this year to secure first prize at the grand final on 31 January. He proudly joins countrymen Lars Van Galen and Jonathan Zandbergen, winners in 2011 and 2014 respectively. 

Held for the first time in London, at Le Cordon Bleu’s Bloomsbury headquarters, the 2023 final saw Jan face a Grand Jury led by honorary president Michel Roux and including other stars of the culinary firmament like Claude Bosi and last year’s winner, Ryo Horiuchi. Along with seven other top chefs from the USA, Belgium, Japan, Sweden, the UK, Switzerland and France he had been challenged to tailor a recipe around a single ingredient. This year’s theme was pork: as the most widely eaten meat in the world it gave the chefs a particular opportunity to showcase their culinary identities as well as explore the art of nose to tail eating.

Second place in the competition went to Japan’s Hirofumi Kanbe of Restaurant Prunier, an establishment still basking in the glory of a recently awarded Michelin star. Alexandre Vuillin, representing France, took third place. He is currently at La Pyramide, the first restaurant to be awarded three Michelin stars way back in 1933.

Other finalists included Paul Burgalières, Head Chef at L’Enclume, Simon Rogan’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant in the UK, San Diego-based champion of Mexican cuisine Claudette Zepeda, and Miguel Valerio, born in the Dominican Republic but Swiss trained and currently at the much lauded  Maison Wenger. Full information on all the finalists can be viewed on Taittinger’s website.

Ben Colvill
Ben Colvill
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