ACF Culinary Team USA and the Culinary Olympics

The Internationale Kochkunst Ausstellung (IKA) Culinary Olympics is one of the oldest, largest and most diverse international culinary art exhibitions in the world, dating back to 1900. The event is hosted every four years by the German Chefs Association. This year’s IKA will take place in Stuttgart, Germany, on Feb. 2-7, when roughly 2,000 chefs and pastry chefs from more than 60 nations compete for medals in individual and team categories.

ACF Culinary Team USA’s history with the Culinary Olympics dates back to 1956. In 1960, only six years after American chefs first competed on the world stage, the U.S. Culinary Team (as it was then known) captured its first World Championship title at IKA. The team returned in 1964 to rack up eight gold medals. The wins continued for the next two decades, from 1968-1988, under the guidance of ACF Chef Ferdinand E. Metz, CMC, AAC, HOF, HBOT, who has won more than 30 gold medals in international competitions. He served as team manager for the culinary team that won the 1968 Culinary World Cup, and he led Team USA to three consecutive World Championships at the IKA.

ACF Chef Fritz Sonnenschmidt, CMC, AAC, HOF, who was on the 1976 team, says the worldwide bronze medal and tie with France was “a big achievement at that time.” “Everybody looked at American food as frankfurters and hamburgers, but when we won in ’76, it was the first time we ever put American food on the Olympic table,” he says. That year, the team served Texas steak with a coffee-infused barbecue sauce; deep fried onions in the shape of Texas; salmon in puff pastry; stuffed Long Island duck with coulis; turkey casserole; and even cantaloupe melon filled with turkey stew and decorated with a turkey made out of pie dough. “We even put blue, red and white American potatoes on the table — no one had ever seen potatoes in those colors before at the Olympics,” says Chef Sonnenschmidt, who would go on to serve as team manager in ’80, ’84 and ’88. “That was the beginning of the understanding of American cuisine.”

Into the ‘90s, the team continued to break from European tradition and prepare American food using American techniques, ingredients and style — a torch today’s team still carries. At press time, the 2024 ACF Culinary Team USA wasn’t able to go into detail about the final menu to be presented at the upcoming Culinary Olympics, but Team Captain Dan Holtgrave, CEC, has said it would reflect regional nuances and ingredients indigenous to the U.S. This is only the second Olympics when teams will present edible cold platters. The Chef’s Table, as it’s called, requires a meal for 12 people, including hors d’oeuvres, a seafood platter, a vegan course (another newer introduction), entree and petit fours. The hot food portion of the event, including Restaurant of the Nations and Live Carving, will remain the same and test teams to produce a multi-course restaurant and banquet meal demonstrating the highest levels of precision and creativity.

To read more about the current ACF Culinary Team USA, visit acfchefs.org/team

1964 ACF Culnary Team USA