A Message from the President General International Union of Arab Master Chefs Chef Ahmad Maadarani On the Meaning of Professional Reference and the Ethics of Regulation in Culinary Arts Thursday, January 28, 2021

True professional issues are rarely born in moments of noise, nor are they resolved through confrontation. The matters that truly deserve attention are those that grow quietly over time, accumulating until ignoring them becomes a failure to protect meaning itself.

What we are witnessing today in the fields of culinary arts and gastronomy is not a conflict over names, but a deeper confusion of concepts. When professional titles are detached from their reference frameworks, they shift from markers of responsibility into sources of ambiguity, from indicators of accountability into decorative labels. This is where the real crisis begins: when form precedes meaning, and the boundaries between opinion and decision, experience and professional authority, begin to dissolve.

Arbitration, by its very nature, is not an extension of personal taste, nor a reflection of popularity, nor a reward for experience alone. Arbitration is a decision—and every decision carries responsibility. Responsibility, in turn, requires a clear, written, and accountable framework. When such a framework is absent, the harm does not fall on one individual or institution, but on the profession as a whole.

Regulatory steps taken in such contexts should not be interpreted as escalation, but as an effort to restore balance. Regulation is not the opposite of freedom; it is its condition. Reference frameworks are not constraints; they are safeguards. Those who practice with integrity do not fear clarity—they benefit from it.

Every mature profession reaches a defining moment where a fundamental question must be asked:
Do we leave matters open to interpretation, or do we return them to their foundations?
Do we tolerate confusion in the name of openness, or do we protect the field out of respect for its past and responsibility toward its future?

What is needed today is not louder voices, but clearer standards. Not reactive statements, but calm and coherent principles. Not battles on platforms, but a shared understanding that professional titles are not entitlements, but mandates—each with its conditions, limits, and ethical weight.

This is not a conflict between individuals, nor a competition between institutions. It is a moment of professional awareness, in which the essential question must be revisited:
How do we protect the profession from itself before seeking to protect it from others?

I firmly believe that professions lacking the courage to regulate themselves gradually lose their capacity for distinction. And I equally believe that time does not reward noise—it aligns with those who work quietly, who place meaning before names, and responsibility before titles.

Ahmad Maadarani
President General
International Union of Arab Master Chefs
International Culinary & Gastronomy Arbitration (ICGA)
World Supreme Authority for Culinary Arbitration (WSACA