At 6:45 every morning, Ludwig Tjörnemo is up and ready for the gym. His personal trainer has put together a six-month training plan, and he follows a diet plan.
The aim is to get into the best possible physical shape for the world’s most prestigious cooking competition, Bocuse d’Or, which will take place in Lyon in January 2027.
No one can maintain concentration for eight hours straight, but you can get into such good physical shape that you can keep going for longer, says Tjörnemo, who meets with a mental coach at least once a week for the same reason.
Like a Formula 1 team
With a few months to go until the final, it is still unclear which ingredients will be used, but preparations are in full swing.
Although Tjörnemo is the chef in charge of the competition, he has a huge team around him. The competition kitchen also has a commis, or assistant, while a coach gives verbal instructions from outside.
Some of the country’s top chefs are on hand to support him. Outside the kitchen, there are designers who work on the plates alongside glassblowers and silversmiths, as well as ingredient scouts and suppliers, all aiming to provide the best possible conditions.
We usually compare it to a Formula 1 team. I’m the one driving the car, but we have some people who read the map, some who see how fast I’m going and some who change the tires. Everyone is needed for me to be successful, says Tjörnemo.
I have never called a single colleague in the industry and asked for something or for help without getting it.
Mathias Dahlgren as mentor
He also has the support of his mentor Mathias Dahlgren, one of the country’s best-known and most successful star chefs, and the Swede who won the Bocuse d’Or in 1997.
The competition has changed considerably since then. For example, Dahlgren had neither a personal trainer nor a mental coach, the ingredients were known well in advance, and the judging now takes more factors into account, such as food waste and teamwork in the kitchen.
He has a 15-year competitive career behind him and has, among other things, won gold at the Culinary Olympics with the Junior National Chefs Team and captained the National Chefs Team.
He won the Chef of the Year title in 2020.
He won Bocuse d’Or Sweden in 2025 and qualified for the Bocuse d’Or Europe world final in March this year.
Sweden’s team in the world final consists of candidate Ludwig Tjörnemo, commis Emilia Björklund, coach Jimmi Eriksson, jury representative Adam Dahlberg and president Tommy Myllymäki.
The world’s most prestigious cooking championship was created in 1987 by the famous French star chef Paul Bocuse.
It is held every two years alongside the Sirha restaurant trade fair in Lyon, in southeastern France.
Each country holds its own national selection to choose the team that will represent it internationally.
The continental world finals, which are the continental championships, are held next.
A total of 24 countries will compete in the Bocuse d’Or world final in Lyon.
Sweden has won gold once, in 1997, with Mathias Dahlgren. Sweden has taken silver in 1995 (Melker Andersson), 2001 (Henrik Norström), 2009 (Jonas Lundgren), 2011 (Tommy Myllymäki) and 2019 (Sebastian Gibrand). In 2025, Sweden took bronze (Gustav Leonhardt).