Gelinaz Shuffle Tour 2020
The culinary event of the year
Gelinaz!, the global chefs collective, has made a name for itself over the past years for its creative gastronomic events. The cutting-edge group of chefs likes to keep pushing boundaries in the industry while constantly reinventing themselves and giving creative freedom to their members. The most important thing is to be completely free and offer a creative and unique space for chefs to have intercultural exchange while having fun.
The project was founded by Andrea Petrini who is described as one of the most influencial people in the food industry and his superstar partners Pat and Mat from the Grand Cuisine.
The Gelinaz! founders say that the collective was born in opposition to the big cooking shows, faced with the fed-up feeling of those interested in making and redoing their signature dishes on a stage in front of an unreceptive audience. Gelinaz! created a space for chefs to be artist experiment and express themselves.
Choco became Gelinaz! partner just in time for the world’s largest dinner on earth the “Grand Gelinaz! Shuffle Stay in Tour”. With the 'Staying Tour', the idea was to make the chefs standstill. Chefs have been traveling all over the globe and these chefs should be reminded of their home, their restaurant, and their guests while having a lot of fucking fun playing with other chefs’ from all over the world.
This unique gastronomic show was something the world has never seen before. 148 chefs from New Zeeland to the West Coast (making this a 36h long event) exchanged recipes for a day, without knowing the name of the person who designed the menu imposed on them.
One year later, in 2020 the year of uncertainty when Andrea said "We're in deep shit” the Gelinaz! decided to strike back with the new global event, "The Grand Gelinaz! Shuffle Stay In Tour Silent Voices". It was just like The Gelinaz! Grand Shuffle from last year, except it, was different.
Unlike in 2019, the chefs were cooking an eight-course menu alone but with their friends who are located in a restricted geographical area, because collectiveness and togetherness are what the industry needs at this moment. Chefs need to get together and be stronger together.
The cooks who prepared the matrixes (the recipes which were randomly shuffled and sent to other cooks) have been named the 'Silent Voices'. These chefs were in between two phases, between closing and opening, between one country and another, or stuck at home because of confinement. They are people who have no place to live, who cannot express themselves, and who don’t have megaphones.
So, this time, the cooks hosting the event were given the opportunity to choose their fellow chefs who accompanied them in the kitchen, with the idea of curating. Having them work together added to the improvisational side and forced them to think outside of the box while forcing them to become part of the collective culture.
Cheers to Gelinaz! for bringing so many inspiring chefs together and giving them a voice when they needed one.