On February  3rd, 2015, MESA Hotels and Resorts' Regional Executive Chef, Daren Lauder, received an honor to judge at Hilton's South East Asia F&B Masters 2014/2015, which was held at Double Tree By Hilton Hotel, Jakarta.

The event that was organized by Double Tree by Hilton, Jakarta, invited all 5 finalists from Jakarta, Singapore, Colombo, Kuala Lumpur, and Bangkok. The finalists competed head to head to cook the best dish to win prestigious title from the Culinary Cup. The winner received a chance to experience working in a Michelin-starred restaurant in Tokyo.

Darren has been working for MESA Hotels and Resorts as Regional Executive Chef since 2011. He had experienced working for various big chain hotels such as Sheraton, The Westin, Marriott, and Kempinski as Executive Chef before residing at MESA Hotels and Resorts.

Throughout his career as a chef, Darren also fills his time travelling around the world to judge at various culinary competitions. His gift of excellence in cooking and to understand young talents awarded him with an approval as a judge from World Association of Chef Societies (WACS).

Although he had attended many competitions, Darren always finds something fascinating from every competition especially from the participants.

“As each one of the competitors is from different areas of Asia, it was interesting to see how theyinterpreted the ingredients differently, and the different styles they use in a competition setting.”

He believes competitions like this help the industry to find young talents which can be trained and focused on to become future leaders.