Twenty-two hours is a long time on a plane. But it’s truly interminable when there’s a pouch of live, bubbling kimchi in your checked luggage – one that could explode at any moment due fluctuating air pressure in the hold and fermentation gases building up.

Welcome to the emotional state of KyongHo Daniel Choi, who last month flew to Milan for the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition – kimchi in tow. After months of training – some with world-renowned chef Josh Niland, who mentored Choi in the lead-up – the Omnia chef represented the Pacific in the global event.

Held every two years since 2015, the prestigious global competition starts at the regional level. Professional chefs aged 18 to 30 meet at one of 15 regional finals, presenting a signature dish of their own invention. The 15 regional winners then head to Milan, each taking an assigned mentor who helps with strategy (surprisingly important!) and refining the dish’s plating and presentation, though not ingredients, which must stay the same.

A Grand Jury of seven highly accomplished chefs taste and judge the signature dishes over two days. Together, they select a single winner based on technical skill, creativity and vision or, as the organisers put it, the “ability to communicate … one’s vision of the world and cuisine, in a clear message”. Storytelling, in other words.

Broadsheet was on the ground at this year’s competition. Here’s everything that went down.

Day one

6am – The first seven finalists begin arriving at Milan’s East End Studios, a sprawling hangar-like events space. It’s set up with a few hundred spectator seats, a central stage for the judges and two symmetrical banks of gleaming kitchens on either side. The finalists will spend the next five hours sweating in their little hotboxes, assisted by two local chefs. Deciding which tasks to trust the locals with is a major strategic decision. Choi has drawn day two, giving him a little extra time to recover from jet lag.

9am – The buzz swells as journalists, influencers, other finalists and senior spectating chefs begin arriving. The central bar – dispensing unlimited espresso, bottles of Sanpellegrino and Acqua Panna – is mobbed. Nobody’s come quite as far as the Australian contingent but, among all the excitement, plenty of people look travel-weary.

10.30am – The seven members of the Grand Jury, some of the most awarded chefs in the world, assemble at a long table on stage. This year’s grand juror is Frenchman Christophe Bacquié, who has earned numerous Michelin stars over the past 25-plus years. His offsiders are Italian chef Antonia Klugmann of farm-to-table operation L’Argine a Vencò on the Slovenian-Italian border; Niki Nakayama of Los Angeles kaiseki spot N/naka; Elena Reygadas of Mexico City’s Rosetta; Jeremy Chan of London’s West African restaurant Ikoyi; Julien Royer of Singapore’s French fine diner Odette; and Mitsuharu Tsumura of Maido, Lima’s famous Nikkei restaurant. All currently hold Michelin stars with the exception of Tsumura, due to Michelin’s absence in Peru.

11am – Luxembourgish chef Théo Kopp, representing West Europe and Ma Langue Sourit restaurant, is first out of the gate. He has 15 minutes to tell his story and explain how his dish came together. It’s an elevated take on potée Lorraine – a one-pot stew of pork cuts simmered with vegetables – that he grew up eating at his grandparents’ place. His is plated like a terrine, in a neat pool of rich mirabelle plum sauce. As the Grand Jury members taste, they ask probing questions about his ingredient choices and technique. Royer’s impressed, declaring the day has started “on a very high note”.

11.15am – A dramatic gong sounds, signalling Kopp’s time is up. As if choreographed by Wes Anderson, a line of white-jacketed waiters whisk the dishes from the Grand Jury table and replace them with Archipelago Celebration, an homage to Indonesia and Hong Kong. Creator Ardy Ferguson, representing Asia, was born in Jakarta but now works at Michelin-starred Belon in Hong Kong. He’s cooked a Cantonese-style duck breast – scalded, lacquered in red wine vinegar and smoked over sugarcane – paired with a spicy coconut gravy, a riff on Sumatran sate padang sauce. Chan, known as something of a tough customer, says the dish’s aroma instantly took him back to his childhood in Hong Kong.

11.30am – Ben Miller, sous chef at Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal and representing the UK, presents Ode to Sam Yee, an homage to his partner “who has shared her culture with [him]”. The multi-part dish combines Chinese flavours with his classic French training: roasted duck breast with Sichuan jus; confit duck leg rice with brown butter sabayon; and a foie gras dumpling in Alsace bacon consommé. It’s the first dish of the competition to include a matched drink: jasmine blossom tea.

11.45am – Another ring of the gong and mainland China finalist Ya Min Liu, of Shanghai seafood restaurant La Bourriche 133, steps up to present Symphony of Layered Flavours, starring turbot paired with spicy, numbing Sichuan pepper. 

12pm – Tsumura declares Italian representative Edoardo Tizzanini’s dish, An Artichoke Heart, as “simplicity taken to perfection”. The artistic, colour-pocked plate features confit and creamed artichoke enriched with Parmigiano-Reggiano and white truffle. It’s rounded out with dabs of beetroot, rhubarb and small bits of pigeon offal to highlight resourceful, zero-waste cooking.

12.15pm – The day’s sixth finalist, South Africa’s Luckson Mare (Africa, Middle East and South Asia), presents a dish highlighting his home province of KwaZulu-Natal. Alongside roasted duck and sweet potato (his mother’s favourite), the dish features a tart indigenous plum, amathungulu. Chan praises the dish as “a combination of flavours [he’s] never had before”.

12.30pm – The final competitor, Central Europe’s Emilia Montz, tells the Grand Jury she wants to bring some lightness and femininity to the male-dominated world of elite cooking. She unveils Russian Ballet, a classic embossed white china plate containing caviar and potatoes, inspired by her own history as a ballerina.

1pm – With the day’s competition over, the finalists and spectators decamp to an adjacent building for lunch, built mainly around salumi, cheese and wine. This is Italy, after all.

Day two

6am – The eight remaining finalists arrive at the venue with their mentors and local chefs to start prepping.

9am – Spectators begin arriving and the buzz feels bigger than day one. The bar’s been set high and there’s plenty to debate and speculate about.

11am – Panamanian chef Gabriela Sarmiento of Ancon Hill  presents La Malquerida (“The Unloved”), a deconstructed take on sancocho, a hearty chicken and vegetable soup served across her region of Latin America and the Caribbean. It features a chicken-neck roulade, chicken-skin chicharron (crackling), pureed sweet potato, crispy fried sweet potato and chicha (thick corn beer). It’s the most visually striking plate we’ve seen so far, owing to a corn husk standing upright with a wad of savoury fairy floss in its fibres – a nod to Sarmiento’s childhood love for local carnivals.

11.15am – The Grand Jury is presented with Haiku to the Mountain, “a culinary poem in three verses” by Pablo Donadío Falcón, a Slovenian working at Hiša Franko and representing South-East Europe and the Mediterranean. In contrast to Sarmiento, the plating is incredibly minimal, featuring little more than a small square of roe deer and dainty accompaniments, inspired by Falcón’s frequent mountain retreats. “I love sauces, and your sauce is perfect,” Bacquié tells Falcón.

11.30am – French hopeful Antonis Avouri shares The Consequences of Our Actions, a dish highlighting the impact of climate change on key Mediterranean ingredients such as olives and blue crabs, and leaning into his Cypriot heritage. “There is a hidden complexity behind this dish that’s really incredible,” Royer remarks. 

11.45am – Our man Choi, of Melbourne restaurant Omnia, takes to the lectern to describe the tension of growing up between his birthplace of Korea and his adopted home of Ireland. His dish, Bacon and Cabbage or Pork and Kimchi, cleverly finds the commonalities between the two cuisines. It features roasted suckling pig, Irish black pudding, soondae (Korean black pudding), a savoy cabbage and kimchi roll, Irish cheddar custard, gochujang puree and pommes soufflées – a nod to Irish potato crisps. He’s visibly nervous at first but relaxes as praise rolls in. Chan is enamoured with Choi’s soda bread, the final element of the dish; it has a sweet, dark, caramelised base from brushing the baking tin with a mixture of kimchi juice, brown sugar and butter.

12pm – The gong sounds again and Dutch chef Noah Wynants (North Europe) steps up to present his vegan “Dutch rendang”, referencing the country’s colonisation of Indonesia. The creative dish features braised pumpkin, pumpkin puree and an artful armadillo-like silhouette made from overlapping pepitas.

12.15pm – Spanish chef José María Borrás Villarroel (Iberian countries) presents Balearic lobster and suckling pig, aka surf ‘n’ turf turned up to 11. His is the third dish to feature a paired drink.

12.30pm – The Grand Jury begins tasting Across the Sea and Home Again, a dish inspired by Canadian chef Victoria Rinsma’s childhood and her time living “across the sea” in Ireland, where she developed an appreciation for how much people value local flavours and produce. Her dish features wild-caught striped bass from New Brunswick, paired with nixtamalized butternut squash and a side dish of split pea soup her grandma used to cook for her. “You’re showing us your memories, but also bringing together techniques from different cultures,” Tsumura says, referencing her use of nixtamalization, a technique usually applied to corn in Mesoamerican countries.

12.45pm – The USA’s representative, Garrett Brower (sous chef at The French Laundry), plates up Quail Stuffed with Chesapeake Oysters, a tribute to his childhood in Maryland. His dish also features a quenelle of whole corn kernels and carries a message of preservation – particularly the farmed native oyster, whose wild population has been decimated in recent years. “Everything had a purpose here,” Klugmann says. “I love the intensity that comes from something so simple.”

1pm – Everyone breaks for lunch with a side of fervent speculation. Who spoke best today? Which dish did the jury seem to like most? Who will take home the top prize? The consensus seems to be that the standard was higher today but that it’s anyone’s game.

8.30pm – Finalists, media and several hundred guests assemble at Milan’s spectacular Sforza Castle in cocktail attire. We drink prosecco and wander through a pop-up exhibition devoted to the finalists, where 15 stands display personal stories and artefacts, from family photos to footballs.

9pm – Guests are ushered to a glass building in the castle grounds for dinner. Inside, a few dozen long tables are set under a dark sky and classic chandeliers.

9.15pm – The evening’s emcee is English food critic Jay Rayner. Seated at a central table with the finalists and their mentors, he moderates an enlightening discussion about the state and future of gastronomy and presents three initial awards ahead of the main prize. South Africa’s Zanté Neethling, who was eliminated at the regional stage, wins the S.Pellegrino Social Responsibility Award for her dish honouring native Khoi-Khoin women. Dutch chef Noah Wynants, with his pumpkin rendang, wins the Acqua Panna Connection in Gastronomy Award. Another regional finalist, Nicolás A López, takes home the Fine Dining Lovers Food for Thought Award for best expressing his beliefs on the plate with his dish Pork With Hints of the Sea.

9.45pm – Guests tuck into an entree of yellowtail, Brazil nuts and arracacha, a starchy root vegetable. It’s the first of several courses from Pía León, chef-owner of Lima’s Kjolle, and Jessica Rosval, head chef at Casa Maria Luigia and Al Gatto Verde in Italy. Also in the kitchen is 2023’s S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy winner Nelson Freitas.

12am – Massimo Bottura, one of the world’s most celebrated chefs, takes the stage to deliver a passionate speech about food’s ability to forge connections and build community in an increasingly divided world.

12.15am – Rayner calls for some hush to announce the overall winner. He opens the envelope and it’s Ardy Ferguson, the Indonesian-born, Hong Kong-based chef behind Archipelago Celebration. The room erupts and Ferguson’s peers hoist him aloft with sincerity.

12.20am – Ferguson takes the mic and thanks his mentor, Tate Dining Room founder Vicky Lau. He dedicates the award to his family and team at Belon, then echoes Bottura’s remarks, praising the competition’s mentorship and community-building aspects.

1am – Another edition of the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy competition is in the bag. Regionals will kick off again in mid-2026, leading up to the next two-day showdown in October 2027.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Sanpellegrino. The writer travelled to Milan as a guest of Sanpellegrino.