Chef Contest Builds Demand For U.S. Meat In Mexico & Caribbean
Suggested Lead:
Get a professional chef to create a new recipe for U.S. beef, pork, or lamb and consumers will ultimately follow. Gilberto Lozano (hill-bear-toe low-sa-no), the U.S. Meat Export Federation director for Mexico, says that’s the basic idea behind a unique and very successful USMEF chef cooking contest …
The fourth USMEF chef contest, held in Mexico City, included chefs from Mexico and the Caribbean cooking up creative new recipes. Though 200 chefs began the competition, by the time of the actual cook-off the field had been narrowed to 16 chefs from Mexico and 9 from the Caribbean. Alexis Ostelman, a chef representing the Mayan Palace Hotel in Playa del Carmen, says participating in the contest reinforced his belief in the quality of U.S.beef …
Judges picked winners in three categories: nutrition, versatility and originality. The chef contest generates significant media attention for U.S.meat. In addition, Gilberto Lozano says the value of the contest continues long after the chefs’ cooking is over …
The chefs ultimately help USMEF promote U.S. meat in a number of ways. For example: USMEF works with Costco stores in Mexico to have winning chefs conduct special seminars that highlight the quality and nutrition of U.S. beef, pork and lamb. USMEF programs in Mexicoare funded by USDA and producer checkoff dollars.
The U.S. Meat Export Federation is the trade association responsible for developing international markets for the U.S.red meat industry and is funded by USDA, exporting companies, and the beef, pork, corn, sorghum and soybean checkoff programs.
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