Mon Dieu! France flops in cook-off

France faced gastronomic humiliation after it failed to make the podium on home soil in a global cooking contest. Photo / Thinkstock

It is considered to have one of the world's finest cuisines. But France faced gastronomic humiliation after it failed to make the podium on home soil in a global cooking contest.

Norway won this year's gold medal in the Bocuse d'Or, a contest often described as the world cup of chefs. France managed to muster only seventh place in the competition in which chefs must "demonstrate creativity, spontaneity and the mastery of their art".

Rubbing more salt into the wound, America - home of fast food - took silver, a historic first, with Sweden clinching the bronze.

It was an undoubted blow to France, home of haute cuisine and the country that has won the contest a record seven times in its 15 editions, including the previous competition in 2013. The French have only ever once before failed to make the top three, finishing fourth in 2011.

This year contestants were asked to prepare a guinea fowl dish alongside a fish and vegetable recipe using fario trout.

Norway's Orjan Johannessen won gold after cooking for five hours and 35 minutes before a crowd of 2700.

"Everything came good on the day of the competition," said Johannessen, 29. "There was very little to separate the top three countries."

The Bocuse d'Or was started by Paul Bocuse, often described as the "chef of the century" by French food critics, in 1987.

Invariably taking place in Lyon, Bocuse's hometown, it is the world's largest culinary contest, and the winner is often referred to as the world's greatest chef. Bocuse, 89, normally hands out the prizes, but for the first time was unable to attend due to ill health.

In addition to the classic criteria, this year the chefs were judged on a new "eco-factor" - their effectiveness in limiting waste.

France's defeat came weeks after its foreign ministry launched what it called a "gastrono-diplomacy" to foil what it claimed was an "Anglo-Saxon" plot to "dethrone" it as the world's top culinary destination.