This was for the first time an Indian team was taking part in an international culinary contest, General Secretary of Indian Federation of Culinary Associations P Soundararajan told reporters in Chennai on Thursday.

Buoyed by the win, he said, "We now want to participate in the 2008 Culinary Olympics [Images] to be held in Germany [Images]."

Referring to the contest, members of the winning team Chef Rajesh Radhrakrishnan of the Park hotel here and Chef Ashish Gupta of Hotel Claridges in New Delhi said they had the "experience of contesting with thorough professionals" from across the world.

Germany and Turkey won the gold and silver medals in the contest respectively.

Giving details of the contest, they said the first round was on 'ethnic cuisine' for which they prepared a Parotta-Kabab item -- a prawn preparation -- and gajar halwa, which confirmed their place in the finals.

For the finals, they prepared a French dish using rice, tomatoes, chicken and mushroom sausages.

Radhrakrishnan said the competition was "very tough" because in Europe there are professional teams, sponsored by various companies, whose sole job is to participate in such contests.

Asked whether the Federation also intended to form such professional teams, Soundararajan said, "We want to do that, but slowly."