Sake Sommelier Competition 2015 in Britain.

One of Finalist from Hong Kong 



Semi finalist

Sake barrel for the ceremony

The winner of Sake sommelier 2015




Opening Ceremony of Sake Barrel by the 3 Finalist.

When I was asked to attend to the Sake Sommelier of 2015 competition in west London, naturally I was surprised, because I did not know Sake Sommelier is available . I used to like warm Sake with Korean festival foods but in recent years all seemed ice cold and became very expensive and not widely available at the local shops or even super market

Decided to attend to see , when I arrived at Millennium Hotel in Knightbridge all atmosphere seemed rather intense ,
Already they selected semi finalist, five Sommeliers  after long morning session, including written test, tasting so on.


 Talking to the guests in there, surprised by the most of them are already wine sommelier and took the Sake sommelier courses as well. Even qualified

Five semi finalist are all wine sommelier and even the  head wine sommelier at famous Sat Bain restaurant were among them.

From Hon Kong, Spain , Germany, India , so this is truly international.

I did not know so many kind of sake are produced, dry , medium, sweet , just like wine. And grade of rice shaving and of course water quality as you think in Scotland  whisky!!




The finalist  were, Spanish, Indian and Hong Kong Chinese, it looked covered well all over the world ( nearly)
Their final task was recognise the sake brand and region, and blind food match , manner of recommend sake to the customer and waiting and service skill.
3 Asian dishes were served to match with Sake but I could not help to thinking why has to be just Asian food, surely they has to spread to the other kind of food like French, Italian, British so on even Indian . after all they like to makes world food appeal  !!


After long process winner was a Spanish who worked at Restaurants in London for a long time.
Breaking Sake barrel ceremony was quite dramatic, and jolly to taste with floating edible gold flakes, a bit dry and little sweet  tone in the back of my taste bud. , I think it was  fitting final ceremony. Glad to have seen this.




I might take Sake course in 2016, if I can find a time, just course , it would be good to match my Korean food I cook.


Finalist:


MiguelA.Hernandez , kouzu, UK
Laurent Richet, Sat Bains with Rooms Uk
Venkadesh Thanga Mariappan ; UAE
Joshua Kalinan Sinnathamby ; Singapore --Singapore Air line
Randy Au Tsz Fung : Sake Fever ,  Hong Kong
Alexsander Bayer :  Japanese Embassy, Germany






ISAKE international: www.isake.co.uk