My name is Jevanuz Nathanael Nagaria, Binusian 2023, a student of Business Hotel Management at Binus Bekasi. I want to share my experience of my first time participating in the cooking competition. This cooking competition is not like any other competition, this is a prestige one. I compete in the 4th La Cuisine 2022 at SIAL InterFOOD Expo at JIEXPO Kemayoran, Jakarta.

Actually, I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. The competition and expo were postponed due to Covid-19 in 2020-2021. In 2019 I once assist my seniors when they were practicing for the 3rd La Cuisine 2019, since then I was motivated to take a chance to participate in that cooking competition.

Jevanus during the practice at Business Hotel Management Kitchen Lab

 

I knew the competition has been held again from Chef Nurul and the YCCI association. At that moment, I immediately decided to join the competition. The competition has 21 classes and I decided to choose class 14 for Indonesia Spice Up the World – Fish Main Course. I have to cook and serve 2 plates of fish main course with Indonesia flavor and western plating. I immediately thought of a menu called Ikan Acar Kuning or Pesmol. This menu has actually been in my mind for a year when I was still a trainee in semester 5.

I chose Indonesian Cuisine because I want to challenge myself to cook Indonesian Cuisine. From the beginning I was more into cooking Western Cuisine, but for this moment I want to challenge myself as an Indonesian to cook Indonesian Cuisine which I rarely cook. We practice for over a month and a half before the competition on November 09th, 2022. I am very glad and grateful that I was supported by Ms.Rachel as our Head of Program and Chef Nurul as our mentor.

Jevanus at the Competition

On the competition day, I was quite nervous but I think it is okay because this is my first time. Long story short, I did not get a medal, I am only get a diploma. I think my practice and performance not good enough, but I am glad at least I dare to try and challenge myself, and I am so grateful to hear every feedback from the judges. Now I know what I have to do and what it takes to cook a good Indonesian food. The feedback means a lot to me. I learned my weakness point and mistakes that I made, and that motivates me to fight harder and keep learning. The judges said that my sauce doesn’t taste quite Indonesian enough, it needs more bodied to the bumbu. From that, I know my weakness is on the composition of the bumbu and learn from that for the next opportunities.

I think this opportunity is my stepping stone to another level and I am looking forward to another opportunity. I will never give up and keep looking for excellence. I will quote a quote from Thomas Alfa Edison: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10.000 ways that won’t work”. Yes, this is just my path to my success, and from this lesson I can better appreciate other successes that will come in the future. So, in the near future, I will participate again in any competition and keep fighting.

So, that is all that I can share and hopefully from my experience can motivate everyone who read this. I learned a lot from this opportunity by challenging myself.  I want to say thank you to Ms.Rachel, Chef Nurul, my Mom, the judges, and myself. Next time could be better and it will.

Thank you

Jevanuz Nathanael Nagaria – 2301870533