November 2nd to 3rd, 2007, the first international competition of chefs for Northern Europe called the Global Chef Challenge Semi-final, took place in Tallinn, Estonia. Sixteen countries make up this WACS Continental area and 13 of them participated in this challenge. They were Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia. The chefs from the Nordic countries did especially well; all of them finishing among the top 6.

The winner of the Challenge, who will go on to compete in the final in Dubai in May 2008, was Tom Victor Gausdal of Norway. In a close second place came Carina Brydling from Sweden and Pamela Fowlis from Scotland came in third place. Next in line were Finn, Olli Kolu, Dane, Thorsten Schmitd and Aegir Fridrikson from Iceland.

Other competitors included Kaspar Jansons from Latvia, Aldona Geèiene from Lithuania, Simon Hulstone from England, Nick Davies from Wales, Trevor Cunningham from Ireland, Jevgeni Skobelev from Russia and Dmitri Rooz from Estonia.

Although the best food and wine pairing went to Latvian, Kaspars Jansons, Baltic countries did not manage to get to the top this time. There were also prizes presented by Dansukker’s for the three best desserts and these were also won by the three chefs who won overall (Tom Victor Gausdal of Norway, Carina Brydling from Sweden and Pamela Fowlis from Scotland).

The jury members for this competition were all from out of the Northern European region. The panel was made up of Camille Schumacher from Luxembourg, Fausto Luigi Airoldi from Portugal, Yiannakis Andrea Agapiou from Cyprus and Armin Fuchs from Switzerland. Food and wine pairing was evaluated by 2 sommeliers from Estonia - Sommelier of the Year 2007, Kristjan Markii as well as Arne Pajula. Tony Jackson was there as the official WACS observer.

The overall winner received a combi oven from Electrolux as well as a large award platter from Figgjio. The winners of the three best desserts received special glass awards from DanSukker and glass dishes from Iceland. Commemorative plates were also handed to every competitor by Figgjo and the Estonian Chefs Association presented them with gift bags filled with Estonian liqueur and chocolates.

Tom Victor Gausdal, will compete against the semi-final winners from the other Continental Regions from the USA, Japan, Australia, South-Africa, Cyprus and the Netherlands at the Grand Finale of the Global Chef Challenge which takes place in Dubai in May during the WACS Congress.