By Florence Fabricant

MATTHEW KIRKLEY AND MIMI CHEN, the head chef and commis of Team U.S.A., which has been training to compete in the biennial Bocuse d’Or culinary contest to be held next January in Lyon, France, has secured a place in the finals. The team came in first in the Americas competition, a preliminary round last week in which 11 countries from the Western Hemisphere competed. Team U.S.A. won gold in the 2017 Bocuse d’Or and is sponsored by the Ment’or BKB Foundation run by Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller and Jérôme Bocuse, the son of Paul Bocuse, who founded the contest.

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