Gavin Kaysen serves as head coach for Bocuse d'Or

Two years of meticulous effort will be put to the test soon as the U.S. culinary team goes spatula-to- spatula with the rest of the world in the Bocuse d'Or, the international cooking contest for chefs, named after legendary French culinarian Paul Bocuse.

Head coach of the U.S. team is none other than our own Gavin Kaysen, chef/owner of Spoon and Stable in Minneapolis, who competed in 2007.

Although the U.S. team has never topped sixth place in competitions that date back to 1987, Kaysen hopes this will be the year for Team USA as 24 international chefs face off in a raucous culinary arena.

In a few days, he leaves for Lyon for last-minute prep for the Jan. 27 competition, after which he will load all the team's restaurant equipment into a 20- by 20-foot storage unit that stays in France until the next contest, two years from now. "I have more equipment in that storage unit than I have in my own restaurant," he said.

Q: How many are on the team?

A: The team consists of one chef and one commis [an assistant chef]. The commis has to be under the age of 22 by the time we actually go to the competition. The chef is Philip Tessier, executive sous chef at the French Laundry. He has worked for Thomas Keller for about 11 years. We pulled him out of working day-to-day last December [in 2013]. We have been training him since then. Next door to the French Laundry is a home that originally was Thomas' father's home. We now affectionately call it the Bocuse House; it's an R&D test kitchen now. Philip also went to Lyon with us the last cycle as well and got to see the competition and be part of the competition as well and observe — which is really helpful.

Q: How do you train for something like this?

Q: What kind of experience was it when you competed in 2007?

A: It's crazy. It's hard to explain how intense it is. It's literally thousands of people screaming and watching you cook. It's a very odd thing to have happen considering when we cook [elsewhere], the intention is for it to be quiet, calm and collected. So there's noise and the time limit. Your stress and nerves are going at such a high capacity that by the time you start tasting the actual food, you can't really taste it perfectly because your nerves are just so taken over by everything. That's why it's really imperative that we measure everything out — from the salt in a mousse to whatever it might be. Everything is measured out to a T.

Q: When we think of athletes training for competition, it's often in terms of repetition of various exercises. How does this compare with chef training?

A: It's pretty similar, actually. We get up every day at 5:30 in the morning to go to the gym, to create good stamina. Because the thing is, the competition is five hours and 35 minutes and it's basically nonstop. There's no time for you to lag one second. It's an intense push. And there's the repetition — that's basically what the chefs do every day. They cook the same thing over and over and over again. They find different ways to cook faster and find different ways to make the dish more delicious.

Q: What are the other teams doing to win?

Q: How do other countries support this financially?

A: Every country is different. Some have national sponsorships by the government, others have organizations like what we've built in the U.S., the Ment'or organization, which is great. The Ment'or foundation meant the U.S. team was financed. When I competed in 2007, we didn't have that. The biggest difference now is that the competitor doesn't have to worry about what their income will be while training. I never had that. For me, it was me getting paid a salary from the hotel [his employer], but I was paying my commis from my paycheck, basically.

Q: What is a commis?

A: They are the full-time assistant. Every chef we've had as a competitor treats the job of the commis differently. It's peeling things, it's doing last-minute garnishes, it's cutting vegetables, getting the chef set up to cook the items. That's their main focus when they are in there training. It's an incredible learning experience.

Q: What do you, as head coach, do at the actual event in Lyon?

Q: Does this competition need to be updated?

A: They are doing a really good job updating it now with the fish plate. It used to be two platters. Now that they've had the fish plate, it's helped a lot. That has allowed more restaurant chefs to come in. At one point, at least in America, it was a lot of country club chefs and hotel chefs that were doing this competition because you would have the time basically to train. If you're a restaurant chef doing 150 covers every night and you're busy, it's pretty hard to train. I feel that they are doing a better job of updating it, but it can always get better.

Q: You have a medallion in your restaurant kitchen that reflects the competition (see photo above).

A: We were called Bocuse d'Or USA before it was renamed Ment'or in 2014. The main focus of Ment'or is really to finance the candidate and commis and also young culinarians around the country with grants. I believe we gave out a little more than $200,000 in grants this year. The competition is a way not only for us to give back to our younger generation of cooks but also to help inspire and promote them.

Q: Will your role continue as head coach in future competitions?