Singapore wins Culinary Olympics 2016

Source: the Singapore National Culinary Team. The Singapore National Culinary Team beat over 30 countries around the world to win the Culinary Olympics 2016 championship title. The team won gold for both the Cold Display and Hot Cooking segments. It is the first time Singapore has won the Culinary Olympics. From left: Teo Yeow Siang, team captain, from Lavish Catering; Triston Fang, team member, from Ocean Restaurant by Cat Cora, Resorts World Sentosa; Alan Wong, team member, from Lavish Catering; team manager Louis Tay from Swissotel Merchant Court; Roy Lim, team member, from Unilever FoodSolutions; and Alex Chong, team member, from The Regent Singapore.

It's not only Michelin star chefs that Singapore can boast of now. The Singapore National Culinary Team has won the Culinary Olympics 2016, scoring golds for in the Cold Display and Hot Cooking categories, showing that the country's chefs are world-class too.

The Culinary Olympics is one of the most prestigious international culinary competitions in the world. Held in Erfurt, Germany every four years, this year’s edition took place from 21 to 26 October 2016, with 30 of the world’s top national teams participating.

The Singapore National Culinary Team has a stellar reputation in international culinary competitions. It had been training for a year for the competition. The team is led by Chef Louis Tay, Executive Chef, Swissotel Merchant Court, who has a long list of competition accolades. He was also Team Manager when the Singapore National Culinary Team clinched the championship title for the third time at the Culinary World Cup in Luxembourg.

The team for Culinary Olympics 2016 was handpicked based on experience, commitment and potential. Team Captain Teo Yeow Siang is from Lavish Catering as is team member Alan Wong. The other team members include Triston Fang from Ocean Restaurant by Cat Cora, Resorts World Sentosa; Roy Lim of Unilever FoodSolutions and Pastry Chef Alex Chong who is from Regent Hotel.

For the Culinary Olympics, the team has to deliver a Cold Display, setting up an exhibition table comprising four different kinds of finger foods for six people; a cold festive/buffet platter for eight; three different starters for one; an lacto-ovo vegetarian three-course lunch menu for one; and a festive menu for one. A separate pastry setup must also be displayed, including a show item, four different individual plated desserts for one, plus a display of sweet biscuits, chocolates, petits-fours or friandises (Editor's note: the plate of sweets or pastries served at the very end of a meal).

The second part of the competition is the hot cooking segment. The team has to prepare 110 portions of a three-course meal – an appetiser (with seafood/fish as main ingredient or a combination of both), a main course using butcher’s meat, poultry or game, or a combination thereof; and dessert featuring contrasting textures and temperatures.

Tay said a culinary competition of this level is both emotionally and physically intense. "The team has sacrificed a lot of time and sleep. There are so many people we need to thank. Firstly, the Singapore Chefs’ Association for backing us up and the sponsors who made all this possible. We are very grateful to our mentors, who have also spent a lot of time walking this journey with us, refining our dishes so we can reach perfection. And lastly, the team members and their families for committing so many months of their life to this mission. We are proud (of) our performance, and for representing Singapore the best way possible,” he said.

Interested?

Read the WorkSmart Asia blog post about Lavish Catering's launch of premium catering services

Instagram did better than Facebook for Rio 2016

Source: ComScore. Social network interactions between Facebook and Instagram for July 2016 around the Olympic games, which ran from 5 to 21 August.

ComScore has reported that social network Instagram was the star for engagement during Rio 2016, although Facebook - which owns Instagram - was the main social platform used to share official content before the event.

In June, the UK ranked third in the world in total unique visitors on RIO2016.COM, followed by Australia and Argentina. Latin American countries were in the top two. Other highlights included:

• With 3 million fans around the world, the Rio 2016 Facebook page increased post cadence before the Olympic games when compared to the previous quarter. Frequency grew from 47 posts per week between April and May to 55 during July 2016.
• During July, 40% of total actions on the RIO 2016 Facebook page were generated by posts containing videos. Once the games started, posts with photos took precedence, responsible for 81% of total actions during the first weekend of the games, including likes, shares and comments.
• 63% of official Rio 2016 social content was posted on Facebook during July. However, despite less content, Instagram was responsible for 72% of the total actions on Rio 2016 social networks during the same month.

SingPost celebrates Team Singapore's achievements at Rio

Source: SingPost.

To celebrate Team Singapore’s achievements at Rio 2016, which include Singapore’s first Olympic gold, Singapore Post (SingPost), in collaboration with the Singapore National Olympic Council, will release two special edition Rio 2016 Games of the XXXI Olympiad MyStamp sheets on 29 August 2016. SingPost will contribute all net proceeds, or a minimum of S$10,000, to the Singapore Olympic Foundation.

The limited edition Team Singapore MyStamp sheet is priced at S$20 and honours the Singapore athletes for their efforts and achievements at this year’s Olympic games. The total face value of stamps is S$6.60.

The Singapore’s First Olympic Gold MyStamp sheet is priced at S$10. On 12 August 2016, Joseph Schooling won Singapore's first-ever Olympic gold medal after winning the men’s 100m butterfly final with an Olympic record time of 50.39 seconds. This MyStamp sheet features six stamps with photographs of Joseph Schooling’s victorious swim and medal reception. The total face value of stamps is S$2.40.

The set of Rio 2016 Games of the XXXI Olympiad MyStamp sheets, comprising the Team Singapore and Singapore’s First Olympic Gold MyStamp sheets, is priced at S$25.

Source: SingPost. Rio 2016 Games of the XXXI Olympiad MyStamp sheet for Team Singapore.

Woo Keng Leong, CEO (Postal Services) of SingPost, commented: "As the nation celebrates a historic Olympic Games for Team Singapore, SingPost is pleased to collaborate with the Singapore National Olympic Council to issue these special edition MyStamp sheets. Together, we commemorate the Team's achievements. With these stamps, every Singaporean can own a piece of this milestone. Most importantly, these stamps demonstrate our support of Singapore's talented athletes and their pursuit of sporting excellence at the highest levels."

SingPost is celebrating Singapore’s first Olympic gold medal with two commemorative slogan designs. Most stamped letter mail from now until 9 September 2016 will be imprinted with the commemorative postmarks. The designs for these are based on the themes of Stamp of Distinction and Stamping Greatness in 50.39 Seconds.

SingPost has also released a Games of the XXXI Olympiad stamp set in celebration of the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games. The stamps come in four designs, featuring swimming (1st Local), shooting (70¢), table tennis (90¢), and sailing ($1.30).

Interested?

The MyStamp sheets will be available at all post offices and the Singapore Philatelic Museum from 29 August 2016. They may also be purchased online. Pre-orders will be accepted at all post offices and online from 22 August 2016.

Is Brazil a cyber security concern?

Every four years, cyber criminals use the Olympics as a way to get malware to victims, and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil is no different. While we should always be on our guard against creative phishing attempts making use of the news of the day, a recent threat report from Fortinet, titled FortiGuard Eye of the Storm, notes in an appendix that this year's Olympics deserves special attention.

While cyber attacks during the Olympic games are not new, with attacks reported as far back as 2004 when the Summer Olympics in Greece that year saw a cellphone service provider's switches hacked, Fortinet sounds the alarm on the Summer Olympics in Rio for two reasons which could impact spectators, athletes and support teams on the ground, and create a halo effect that could affect those at home when they return (or even before):

Low priority for cyber attacks in Brazil

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF) ranking of global business risks, Brazil ranks cyber attacks No. 23 and data fraud/theft No. 16. Failure of national governance is listed as No. 1, while water crises are in the No. 2 spot. In contrast, Japan among other countries has ranked cyber attacks No. 1.

The report goes further to say that based on historical information, the volume of attacks is expected to be high. The 2012 London Olympics experienced 165 million security events, which were reduced to 97 actual security incidents according to the CIO of the 2012 Olympic Games Gary Pennell. The UK ranks cyber attacks No. 2 in business risks in the 2016 WEF ranking, raising questions about how a country which considers cyber security lower on the list may fare when faced with many security events.

Respondents for the WEF survey included members of multistakeholder communities of leaders from business, government, academia and non-governmental and international organisations - key decision makers who might also have been involved in supporting the Olympics ecosystem.

Increased threat activity in Brazil

Source: Fortinet FortiGuard Eye of the Storm report. Percentage increase in threats in Brazil from May to June 2016 compared against global percentage increases. Or note are the increases for malicious URLs and phishing URLs.

Fortinet also observes in the report, which was published before the Olympics this year, that the volume of malicious and phishing artifacts (i.e. domain names and URLs) in Brazil is on the rise. In June, malicious URLs grew 83% month-on-month compared to 16% for the rest of the world. FortiGuard Labs is already seeing indicators of repeat techniques used in past attacks, the report revealed. For example, domain lookalikes such as v1sabancario.k6.com.br,  associated with payment systems fraud, and over 3,800 malicious websites and URLs with the government designation “.gov.br” could be targeting government and event officials.

Similar techniques that were used during the 2014 Rio World Cup according to a report by the National Cyber Security Institute. Notable threat artifacts for Q216 include a Nemucod ransomware variant as the top malware variety, and first stage Trojans and downloaders as top malware types. Andromeda, Sality and Zeroaccess are the top three botnets in action, while the top three exploit kits in use have been RIG, Neutrino and Angler.

Interested?

Download FortiGuard Eye of the Storm (PDF. The report helps to prepare readers on preparing to face an active data breach as well as how to apply cyber threat intelligence for more proactive results.