Longtime San Diegan Stefanie De Palma, who worked her way up from pastry chef to chef de cuisine over the past 15 years at Michelin three-star Addison restaurant, was selected on Sunday to lead Team USA in the prestigious culinary Olympics known as the Bocuse d’Or.
The first test De Palma and her commis (novice) chef Bradley Waddle will face will be the Bocuse d’Or Americas contest in 2024. If Team USA wins there, they will move on to the international Bocuse d’Or Final competition in Lyon, France, in January 2025. In the 36-year history of the Bocuse d’Or, Team USA has only won the gold statue once, in 2017.
Chef Stefani De Palma.
(Courtesy of Philip Odegard)
De Palma said she’s deeply honored to represent her country in the Bocuse d’Or.
“An incredible amount of planning and practice took place over the last two months in preparation for the national selection and I am so proud of what chef Bradley Waddle and I have accomplished,” she said, in a statement. “I am especially grateful to Ment’Or, my coach, chef Devin Knell, and chef David Breeden for their support throughout our training and look forward to what we will achieve over the next year and a half.”
Stefani De Palma, center, with her award-winning team — coach Devin Knell, left, and commis chef Bradley Waddle — at the Bocuse d’Or Team USA selection competition on Sunday, Sept. 3, in Napa.
(Courtesy of Bocuse D’Or)
Addison earned its third Michelin star last December, making it the only three-star restaurant in Southern California and one of just 13 three-stars in the U.S. But De Palma said she decided earlier in 2022 that she wanted to explore new possibilities, so she stepped down on Dec. 31. Earlier this year that she applied for the Team USA National Selection Event and was invited to train full time for the competition over the past two months in Napa.
At the event on Sunday at Napa’s Culinary Institute of America campus, De Palma and Waddle competed against two other U.S. teams led by chefs Vincenzo Loseto, of Press Restaurant in Napa Valley, and Angus McIntosh, a private chef whose clients include Cyndi Lauper and Rod Stewart. Each chef had to create and serve a variety of dishes based on a theme. Among the dishes De Palma created with Waddle were a Snake River Farms Kurobota pork collar ragout and a chilled Brentwood corn custard with summer squash.
Stefani De Palma’s award-winning platter of dishes at the Bocuse d’Or Team USA selection competition on Sunday, Sept. 3, in Napa.
(Courtesy of Robert Lerma)
Among those gathered at Sunday’s event to cheer on De Palma was Addison chef/director William Bradley.
“It was incredibly special to see chef Stefani and her team win the USA Selection event, an opportunity that so few chefs will ever experience,” Bradley said, in a statement. “Chef Stefani brings so much focus and passion to all she does and that grit was on display throughout the competition. The Bocuse d’Or is legendary, a celebration of excellence in the craft, and I am so thrilled for chef Stefani’s monumental accomplishment.”
De Palma grew up in the San Gabriel Valley city of Arcadia and attended Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Pasadena. After a three-month cooking internship in Italy, she moved to San Diego in 2007 and applied for a pastry position at Addison. She gradually rose through the ranks of chef de partie, chef tournant, pastry sous chef and sous chef at Addison. In 2016 at age 27, she was promoted to chef de cuisine, the No. 2 position below chef Bradley, and she was by his side when the restaurant earned its first Michelin star in 2019, its second in 2021 and its third in 2022.
De Palma will now be moving permanently to Napa, along with her commis chef Waddle, to train full time for the next year for the Bocuse d’Or Americas. The date and location have yet to be named.
Overseeing their training will be Team USA President Gavin Kaysen, who is the only San Diego chef to have made it to the Bocuse d’Or Final.
From 2004 to 2007, Kaysen was the executive chef at the former El Bizcocho restaurant at the Rancho Bernardo Inn. In 2007, he competed for Team USA at the Bocuse D’Or chef contest. He later went on to become a coach for American Bocuse d’Or competitors, and in 2015 he coached Team USA to its first-ever award, the silver statue, at the Bocuse d’Or Final in Lyon. Kaysen now lives with his family in Minneapolis where he owns multiple restaurants.
The Bocuse d’Or, which is held every other year, was created in 1987 by French chef Paul Bocuse who wanted to create the world’s most rigorous cooking competition. One chef and one commis chef are selected from 24 countries to compete in a one-day contest where they have 5-1/2 hours to make and serve an elaborate platter of dishes to 24 judges (one from each country).