- November 23, 2024
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Leading up to the second round of tryouts for the American Culinary Federation’s Culinary Team USA, Certified Master Chef Jason Hall served his hot food dish every Friday night for members of Hammock Dunes Club, where he is the executive chef.
Practice paid off, and he has been selected to the team to represent the U.S. in international culinary competitions.
When I sat down with Hall in 2012 after he received his CMC distinction, the 2016 Internationale Kochkunst Ausstellung, commonly referred to as the Culinary Olympics, in Erfurt, Germany, was on his list of long-term goals, but he thought he would take a couple years off first. Little did he know that just one year later he would be part of an 11-chef team to represent the country in Germany.
“It’s extremely humbling,” he said while sitting in the empty ball room at Hammock Dunes. “It’s a huge honor to be able to represent the United States cooking and doing what I love to do. There is a select few that get this opportunity, and for me, it’s that next step and it’s going to provide growth and development.”
Hall is the only chef from Florida on the team and is joined by Joseph Albertelli, of Rye, N.Y.; Brian Campbell, of Charlotte, N.C.; George Castaneda, of Franklin, Tenn.; Shawn Culp, of Bridgeville, Pa.; Ben Grupe, of St. Louis; Aaron Haga, of Colorado Springs, Colo.; Adam Munroe, of Chestnut Hill, Mass.; Alison Murphy, of Indian Wells, Calif.; Matthew Seasock, of Fort Worth, Texas; and Corey Siegel, of White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.
“To be on a team of this caliber, the decision was not just based on how well the chefs can cook,” said Certified Executive Chef Joseph Leonardi, team manager. “The judges and I selected the chefs who have the personal drive and passion and want to be part of ACF Culinary Team USA for the duration.”
Similar to the traditional athletic Olympics, which brings together the best athletes from around the world, every four years, the IKA, founded in 1896, serves as a world-class venue for talented chefs from around the globe.
The ACF Culinary Team USA began competing internationally in 1956. The 1960 team captured the first world championship honor at the IKA and repeated the distinction in 1980, 1984 and 1988 by taking the prestigious hot-food competition and establishing a new world record for the most consecutive gold-medal wins. In 2002, ACF Culinary Team USA had the highest score in restaurant-style cooking among 32 nations, and in 2008, the regional team won the overall world championship title in the regional category.
