Xara Palace wins sixth Salon Culinaire Grand Prix Trophy

The Xara Palace Relais and Chateaux’s chefs led by executive chef Kevin Bonello took home the Master Chef’s Grand Prix Trophy at the Salon Culinaire de Malte competition for the sixth time.

Chef Bonello and his team made up of Adrian Bonello, Clinton Grech, Alessandro Gravino, Otis Caruana and John Aguis, won 21 awards across the competition including nine gold medals plus best in cold display.

The Salon Culinaire, which was held at the MFCC in Ta’ Qali this year, is the culinary arts competition of professionally produced food in specific categories presented by trainees, cooks, kitchen artists and chefs for peer evaluation. The evaluation process includes flavour, presentation, composition, technical skills and many other measurable benchmarks.

Salon Culinaire’s Grand Prix competition attracts Malta’s top restaurants, chefs, and hotels in the biggest event of its type.

The Malta Cookery and Food Association hosts this annual extravaganza of cooking, baking, wine-serving, coffee-making and imaginative culinary and creative displays.

Xara Palace Relais and Chateaux director Nicola Paris expressed the hotel’s pride at the team’s success. As Malta’s smallest hotel with just 17 rooms, it could only enter a handful of staff and this result was achieved with just one fine dining restaurant.