39 countries, a thousand businesses, and over 20,000 participants. EFKO FOOD Professional has become the general sponsor of the Culinary Marathon at WorldFood 2023.

From France to Sri Lanka: the marathon concept brought together within a common space national cuisine and non-stop tastings. There was also a place for Russian traditions!

For example, a contemporary version of semolina pudding and a thick cabbage soup were served to the WorldFood guests. Anton Prokofiev, EFKO FOOD Professional brand chef, and Alexey Vinogradov, ex-chef of the Olympic team, cooked cabbage soup in both traditional meat and plant-based meat versions. HiBalls meatballs were at hand!

HoReCa Ahead

EFKO FOOD Professional focuses on cutting-edge practical solutions that assist in speeding up the cooking process while preserving the dish's flavor and quality. Increasingly, speed of service comes first in the structure of the needs of a cafe guest.

“Cafe or burger joint? A person faces a choice of where to have lunch and chooses in favor of fast food. Why? The time is the answer. This is what stands at the top of everything! – Fedor Mogutnov, director of the HoReCa Division at EFKO, mentioned at the plenary session of WorldFood. – The current customer is looking for quick and practical ways to eat. He doesn't want to waste time on waiting. The speed, convenience, and variety of flavors offered make fast food attractive to busy people. And even a Michelin-starred restaurant has something to learn to cook the product quickly while preserving the taste, benefits, and quality.”

Functional products for HoReCa with specified parameters: fat content, balanced amino acid composition, stable and predictable quality, assist in cooking such dishes.

“For 3 years, our chefs, technologists, and marketers have been traveling all over the country to improve our product, make it even healthier and of better quality. We are constantly enhancing our products providing fresh, original solutions for absolutely all public food styles, from traditional canteens to the most demanding restaurants,” Fedor concluded.

One of the effective solutions that speed up cooking is adding plant-based minced meat to the meat, that is mixed minced meat. “It greatly improves the functionality of conventional minced beef, turkey, or duck meat. Adding plant-based minced meat reduces the mixing and maturing time and the frying shrinkage by 10%. Checked!” –Yulia Markova, EFKO FOOD Professional chef, confirms.

Deep Frying is not Just for Potatoes

Another developing area for EFKO FOOD Professional is frying oils.

Why potatoes only? Chefs know that deep frying opens opportunities for much more variety! To confirm this, Dmitry Belogrivtsev and Oleg Kozlov, who are the chefs of EFKO FOOD Professional and the Chudskoye Ozero company, made the culinary master class. They deep-fried four different dishes, and all of them with no potatoes.

Dmitry Belogrivtsev,
EFKO FOOD Professional chef

“Few people think about how effective and safe deep-frying can be. Oil in this case acts as a medium for rapid temperature transfer. And if we install the right equipment and use the right fat, such nutrition can be called practically dietary. The oxidation process is stopped very well and is not transferred into the product.”