Opened on Feb. 7, Saudi HORECA provided a platform to more than 150 local and international companies from over 30 countries to showcase 6,000 products ranging from food to kitchen equipment.

The three-day event brought together industry experts, entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, hoteliers and buyers from across the region, while shining a light on rising talents in Saudi Arabia’s food and beverage scene.

Joumana Dammous-Salame, managing director of Hospitality Services and the event organizer, said: “The Saudi HORECA highlights trends, market solutions, networking environment and hosts live cooking demonstrations and culinary competitions.

“Through these competitions, we are mainly focusing on showcasing the skills of both amateur and professional chefs and rewarding them for their creativity and excellence at different levels of the sector.”

The Saudi HORECA Jeddah program included renowned Hospitality Salon Culinaire cooking competitions, where more than 150 chefs contested in different categories judged by a panel from the Kingdom, UAE, Lebanon, Egypt, Malaysia, Greece, and France. Visitors were able to discover the region’s latest culinary concepts and trends.

A barista competition and mocktail competition were held in parallel to the culinary competition.

The Salon du Chocolat et de la Patisserie made its debut by showcasing chocolate and confectionery from around the world in addition to honey, dates and other local sweet products.

More than 25 chocolate, pastry and ice-cream shops, manufacturers, suppliers and distributors were part of the show. Visitors included professional chocolate tasters, chocolate aficionados, pastry chefs, bakers and authors.

Special features at the event included a choco demo, a space to mingle with influencers and food bloggers, and Salon du Chocolat Junior, an area for children to get creative with chocolate.

Gerald Palacios, CEO of ChocoLoco International SA and founder of Salon Du Chocolat, said: “As this is the first time in Saudi Arabia, it is extremely important for us to be a part of the growing culinary scene in the Kingdom and to be able to share all information about chocolate and cacao in addition to seeing all the future developments that we can make here.

“Our goal has always been the same, we want to offer the opportunity for the consumer to discover the chocolate in a very specific environment where they can test, experiment, learn, and understand all about chocolate. So education is key, but having a moment of pleasure, and fun alongside learning is also very important.”

Thomas Andreas Gugler, culinary vice president at Saudi Airlines Catering and president of the World Association of Chefs Societies, said: “We have great culinarians from all around the world that are working and staying in Saudi Arabia and are really hungry to get the right exposure. These competitions help them to achieve their passion and enhance their skills. We even have young Saudi culinary chefs participating in different categories. These platforms provide a great opportunity for all the talented chefs to express their culinary knowledge and get it broadcasted in front of a live audience.”

Gugler added that 35 chefs from Saudi Airlines Catering participated in the competition.

Yasser Jad, president and founder of the Saudi Arabian Chefs Association, Culinary Art, and hospitality development consultant at Royal Commission for Riyadh City, said: “The idea behind all the competition categories is totally encouraging. One such category is creating Saudi dishes since we have a lot of young generation Saudi males and females who are amateurs. We would like to encourage them if they don’t have wise experience in professional cooking and can at least participate with the local dishes category.”

Shahad Bokhari, a chef from Jabal Omer Conard, participated in the Saudi cuisine category competition and said that through these types of competitions, young chefs in the Kingdom can develop culinary innovation and get a chance to demonstrate their talents to a wider audience.