Mark Briffa, (photo), Sous Chef at The Palace, won the Gold Award for Decorated Celebration Cake category at the Istanbul Festival de Gastronomie held recently in Turkey.

Malta was one of the 25 participating countries which included Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Israel, Italy, TRNC, Korea, Egypt, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. In all, nearly 1000 international chefs, mostly members of the Euro-Toques, Chefs Club and World Association of Cook Societies, attended the week-long festival. The international festival was organised by the Culinary Federation according to the regulations determined by the World Association of Cook Societies with international chefs making up the judging panel.

Mark Briffa was also awarded a Merit in the Senior Decorated Celebration Cake at the Biannual Cookery and Culinary Arts, Malta Kulinarja recently. This is the second consecutive success which augurs well for the recently opened The Palace. In fact, The Palace carried away eight prestigious awards at the recent Malta Kulinarja the Biannual Cookery and Culinary Arts Championships organised by the Malta Cookery and Food Association, at the Dolmen Resort Hotel.