Dubai World Trade Centre has 'most-decorated' hospitality team in Middle East

In total, the DWTC team won 11 gold, 23 silver and 14 bronze medals that were awarded across a range of competitive categories including Individual Ice and Chocolate Carving, Traditional Arabic Mezzeh, Gourmet Dinner, Vegetarian Menus and New Arabian Cuisine.

DWTC chef Lifeng Dong, with 4 gold medals, was the best individual performer in this year's competition, surpassing his last year's record of 3 golds.

Felix Gaan, with 2 individual gold medals was the second highest in rankings with five others from DWTC also winning a gold each.

The event attracted over 1,000 young chefs from across the region, many from Dubai's leading five-star hotels and restaurants and the competition was widely acknowledged as being extremely keen and strongly contested across all categories.

Helal Saeed Al Marri, Director General, Dubai World Trade Centre said: "Hospitality is a key element of our overall offering as the premium venue for hosting leading events in the region, and this achievement underlines the world-class standard of our team. We see this as a significant boost to our reputation as an international provider of service excellence."

DWTC has prioritised investment in its hospitality team as part of its vision to make Dubai the world's leading destination for all major events, conferences and exhibitions.

In particular, it has received international praise for combining traditional Emirati dishes with a nouveau five-star approach to elevate it to haute cuisine standards.

It has also developed a reputation for providing one of the most eclectic selection of dishes available anywhere in the Middle East with diverse flavours and varied menu options capable of catering to a wide target audience.

As well as providing catering support for meetings and exhibitions held within DWTC venues, the team is also one of the largest providers of hospitality and catering services to external events in the UAE.

In 2007, the department served over 1.1m covers across external and internal events including catering to 298 weddings.