Stockholmsmässan and Mässrestauranger sponsor world championship for chefs

Stockholmsmässan and Mässrestauranger have entered into a joint venture to promote world-class Swedish cooking. The companies will be supporting Swedish participation in the Bocuse d’Or, a prestigious competition that can be likened to a world championship for chefs, through a three-year gold sponsorship agreement.

Over one million lunches and dinners are served every year at Scandinavia’s biggest exhibition and congress centre. Both the food and associated services are supplied by the company Mässrestauranger, which has been Stockholmsmässan’s partner for many years now.

“Good food is an essential part of people’s experience of our events, whether it be a conference, an exhibition or some other type of meeting. Together with Mässrestauranger, we are constantly working on developing the culinary dimension for visitors. Therefore it seemed only natural for us to also jointly become sponsors of the Bocuse d’Or,” says Stockholmsmässan President and CEO Patric Sjöberg.

“One of the reasons that we want to support the competition is our commitment to gastronomy. I have long pondered how we can show our visitors and customers in a natural way how important food is to us. By actively supporting gastronomy we are demonstrating our commitment and, at the same time, we can benefit from all the collaboration that the sponsorship arrangement involves,” says Mässrestauranger’s CEO Maria Stridh.

In the past Sweden has taken one gold (Mattias Dahlgren) and three silvers (Jonas L Lundgren, Henrik Norström, Melker Andersson) in the Bocuse d’Or. The competition will next be held in Lyon, France, in January 2011, and Sweden will be represented by Tommy Myllymäki. Tommy was Chef of the Year 2007, and in his everyday life runs Den Småländska Kolonin in Jönköping and Julita Värdshus.

Together with the Swedish Bocuse d’Or Academy and the City of Stockholm, Stockholmsmässan and Mässrestauranger are also actively working to try and bring the competition to Stockholm in 2014.

“If the competition comes to Sweden, it will be held at Stockholmsmässan. We will now do our best to welcome the competition organizers and get them to focus on Sweden,” says Maria Stridh.

For further information, contact:
Patric Sjöberg, CEO, Stockholmsmässan, +46 (0)707- 89 44 03, patric.sjoberg@stockholmsmassan.se

Helena Nilsson, Communication and Marketing Director, Stockholmsmässan, +46 (0)707- 89 44 19, helena.nilsson@stockholmsmassan.se

Maria Stridh, CEO, Mässrestauranger, +46 (0)707- 83 93 82, maria.stridh@massrestauranger.se

Sandra Sundlén, Marketing Manager, Mässrestauranger, +46 (0)765- 25 72 07, sandra.sundlen@massrestauranger.se