The MIGF 2014 Awards and Celebration Party was held last Thursday, Nov 6 at The Royale Chulan Hotel Kuala Lumpur. TASTEMIGF seemed like just yesterday. I was there to witness the amazing and fiery end to the month long Gourmet Festival and to see who got to bring home the many awards. The event hall was like a huge disco, flashing lights and cool music, but the difference was, it was a ballroom and there were endless buffet of local delicacies served.
There was basically food from every state of Malaysia there, I even found my hometown Sarawak Kolomee and Laksa.
The 1000 special guests and VIPs including royalty, 23 foreign ambassadors, celebrities, captains of industry and international food writers finally filled up the hall and the finale event took to the stage with hot dancers and performers, literally hot as the male dancers were blowing fire out of their mouths.
All the chefs took to the stage as well, and we watched in amazement as Mahdi Moudini the magic man and Dato Steve Day himself put on some serious magic shows.
It was all really entertaining and funny as well, they should be in showbiz. The party began and guests continued to enjoy the wide array of food on display. There was a huge line for durian mochi but it was wiped out by the time I reached the counter.
The awards show began shortly after, and Festival Royal Patron Tunku Naquiyuddin ibni Tuanku Ja’afar presented the gleaming golden statuettes to the winners.
Six restaurants made the final cut for the Golden Cauldron Award – given to the best all round restaurant of the Festival – but at the end of the evening it was Chef Nathalie Arbefeuille of Cuisine Gourmet by Nathalie who raised the gleaming trophy high, setting a new record by being the first non-hotel based restaurant to claim the Festival’s ultimate prize and the first by a female chef.
In addition to Cuisine Gourmet by Nathalie, the finalists for the Golden Cauldron Award were La Scala, Marini’s on 57, Tanzini, Ten Japanese Fine Dining and The Olive.
Four Special MIGF Awards were also presented: The prestigious award for ‘Most Popular Restaurant at the VIP Gala Launch’ was won by Cuisine Gourmet by Nathalie based on portions and value sold. ‘The Most Popular Overall Restaurant at Taste MIGF’, this time by public response, was won by Ten Japanese Fine Dining. The award for ‘The Most Outstanding Marketing of the Festival’ was won by Resorts World Genting; while Westin Langkawi’s Seasonal Tastes won the award for ‘The Most Outstanding Overall Festival Experience’. Chef Valmurugan Subramaniam of Samplings on the Fourteenth was voted by his fellow chefs as ‘Chef Congeniality’ – the most popular chef of MIGF 2014.
MIGF2014 FESTIVAL AWARDS Winners full list here