Jayadeva (Jay) Sivaraja, a multi-site manager for Sodexo’s Defence & Government Services business returned from the World Culinary Championships in Luxembourg with a gold medal for culinary artistry.

Jay, who manages eight Transport for London sites for Sodexo, impressed the judges in the Culinary Artistry category with his ‘Plastics or Planet’ masterpiece, a sculpture using salt dough, enhanced with coffee depicting the devastating impact of plastic pollution on our natural habitat.

The Culinary World Cup took place between 24 - 28 November as part of EXPOGAST 2018 which is held every four years. Teams and chefs from around the world competed in numerous competitions across the five-day event.

This is not the first gold for Jay, earlier this year he competed at Hotelympia and came away with gold and best in class in the table centrepiece category and in September he received two golds at Sodexo’s Salon Culinaire competition.

Commenting on his win, Jay said, “Competing is a fantastic opportunity to showcase your skills as well as grow and develop them.  Attending or participating in culinary events such as this is also a great way to connect with a wider culinary community.  I really enjoy competing as it gives me a focus to develop my skills, take risks and experiment in ways that I would not normally do in my day to day job, and to do this on a world stage was an amazing experience.”

Paul Anstey, CEO of Defence and Government Services for Sodexo UK & Ireland said, “Jay’s win is well deserved and fantastic recognition of his talent. We actively encourage our colleagues to participate in events and competitions like this as it is a great and enjoyable way to develop and hone their skills.”

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