The countdown has begun for the Sector on a Talent Hunt competition; Young chefs are returning to the stove...

The Inter-Tourism Vocational High School Cooking Competition, organized in cooperation with the Association of Turkish Hoteliers (TÜROB), the Ministry of National Education and Gastronometro, part of Metro Türkiye, will be held for the third time on 26-27 February 2020.

The 'Sector on a Talent Hunt' project, launched by the Association of Turkish Hoteliers (TÜROB) to contribute to the development of gastronomy tourism as well as to provide employment for graduates of tourism vocational high schools, continues this year too. The 'Inter-Tourism Vocational High School Cooking Competition,' which TÜROB organizes in cooperation with the Ministry of National Education and Gastronometro, part of Metro Türkiye, will be held for the third time on 26 February 2020. At the award ceremony to be held on 27 February, the winners will be announced and the awards will find their owners. The competition, in which students from 12 tourism vocational high schools in İstanbul will compete fiercely and which will be chaired by Chef Vedat Başaran, will be held at Gastronometro, Türkiye's first gastronomy discovery platform launched within Metro Türkiye.

The project, implemented with a sense of social responsibility, aims to meet the tourism and hospitality sector's need for qualified personnel and to increase opportunities for vocational high school graduates to be employed in the field in which they were trained.

To be expanded across Türkiye

TÜROB President Müberra Eresin said that the competition, which will be held for the third time this year, will be organized nationwide across Türkiye starting next year. Noting that internship opportunities are offered by the hospitality sector not only to those who place in the competition but to most of the participants, Eresin said: "Our goal is to ensure that students are permanently employed in our sector once they graduate. Because we are one of the sectors where the shortage of qualified employees is felt most acutely. As the hospitality sector, we continue to seek out all qualified employees graduating from tourism vocational high schools." Eresin also pointed out that they aim to build a bridge between the tourism and hospitality sector and vocational high schools.

Metro Türkiye Chairman of the Board Boris Minialai, for his part, stated that they are pleased to continue supporting the 'Sector on a Talent Hunt' project as Metro Türkiye again this year. Minialai continued: "As Metro Türkiye, one issue we attach great importance to among our efforts within our mission of ensuring the permanence of Turkish cuisine and its values and passing them on to future generations is contributing to the development of our young chefs. We also launched Gastronometro, which hosts this competition, five years ago with the goal of being a bridge bringing together both the local and international gastronomy worlds. Another important mission of this platform is to forge a connection between young chefs and master chefs. To this end, we discover talented young people with the potential to contribute to Turkish gastronomy and bring them together with our instructor chefs. Within this framework, we continue to strongly support the 'Sector on a Talent Hunt' project, on which we cooperate with TÜROB. We will continue to stand by our young chefs for Türkiye's development in the field of gastronomy."

SCHOOLS THAT WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE COMPETITION

1-Selahattin Eyyübi Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School

2-Kadıköy Mualla Selcanoğlu Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School

3-Kumburgaz Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School

4-Küçükçekmece İMKB Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School

5-Şişli Kervansaray Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School

6-Asım Kibar Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School

7-Etiler Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School

8-Sarıyer Vehbi Koç Vakfı Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School

9-M. İhsan Mermerci Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School

10-Selimpaşa İMKB Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School

11-Katip Mustafa Çelebi Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School

12-Şile Borsa İstanbul Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School

About TÜROB

The Association of Turkish Hoteliers (TÜROB) was founded in 1971 with 13 people under the name Marmara Region Touristic Hoteliers Association (T.O.D). In 2015, TUROB officially adopted the name Türkiye and continues its activities as TÜROB (Association of Turkish Hoteliers). Comprising many touristic facilities across Türkiye on the condition that they hold a Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism Investment/Operation Certificate, TÜROB is the most established non-governmental organization representing the hospitality sector.

About Metro Türkiye

Metro, one of the world's leading international retail companies, has undertaken the mission of ensuring the permanence of Turkish cuisine and bequeathing it to future generations since it began operating in Türkiye in 1990. While providing all the services that make up a kitchen for the HoReCa (hotel, restaurant, café) sector, Metro Türkiye, with approximately 4,500 employees in 37 stores across 21 cities, offers professionals 40 thousand types of products needed for themselves and their businesses, taking into account the price-quality-performance relationship. Metro Türkiye, which carries out its work on Turkish cuisine by considering economic, environmental and social impacts and is therefore also a recipient of the Sustainable Business Awards, aims to contribute to recording local values and bequeathing them to future generations through all its efforts, from meat and fish traceability to sustainable fishing, and from food waste projects to the Geographically Indicated Products project. The company, which has its own brands named Metro Chef, Metro Professional, Metro Premium, Aro, Rioba and Sigma, also applies 100 percent of the ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System standards, a standard based on establishing the "Farm to Fork" food safety management system in all its stores.