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David Wong will spend hundreds of hours preparing every item and practising every move he'll make on stage next year at the Bocuse d'Or. Here's a look at a practice day:

8 a.m. Mr. Wong, his sous chef Grace Pineda and coaches Robert Sulatycky and Vince Parkinson arrive in a big commercial kitchen at Vancouver's Dubrulle Culinary Arts school and chat over coffee and scrambled eggs.

8:30 a.m. Mr. Wong and Ms. Pineda fire up stoves and thermal circulators – the beef tenderloin, wrapped together with foie gras mousse and braised beef cheek, will cook for exactly 45 minutes at exactly 56.2 C while Mr. Wong prepares lobster meat for his lobster tomato tartare.

9 a.m. Ms. Pineda uses specially designed cutters to remove plugs of electric-green mousse from the tiny tubular moulds she removes from the refrigerator, and pops out moulded cubes of scallop and mushroom with the skill of a surgeon.

10:30 a.m. Mr. Sulatycky critiques their first presentation: Chanterelle stiffened with agar-agar, topped with scallop wrapped in translucent ribbons of asparagus, is flawed.

11 a.m. Discussion of how some of their miniature, custom-designed moulds might be retooled by the local metal shop – with hinges – to ensure each morsel is absolutely perfect.

11:30 a.m. The tenderloin comes out of the sous vide bath and Mr. Wong is cutting it into thick slices. Inside, the colour is perfectly pink – outside, Mr. Sulatycky suggests a thick sherry and veal jus glaze, and begins refining the design on paper.

12 p.m. The new main course will include veal in the mousse, with the foie gras and beef cheek enclosed in slabs of tenderloin. The beef should be cooked to exactly 52 C – the foie gras not past 50 C.

12:30 p.m. Mr. Wong cleans and minces kidneys for another course while Ms. Pineda assembles oven-dried tomato domes with ham hock and braised cabbage.

1 p.m. A discussion of corn tuiles Ms. Pineda has made for the crisp lacy garnishes – too crunchy. Back to the drawing board.

1:30 p.m. Mr. Wong fills his miniature electric-green and black bombes – created with fennel and black truffle – with warm lobster, and his coaches comment on how finely he has chopped the fish and why his tomato tartare isn't quite red enough. The potato base should be pink – braised in lobster butter – and they need to order some silver skewers to add visual interest.

2 p.m. Squash rings filled with creamy kidney and topped with port-braised turnip pearls get the nod from one coach but criticism from the other. Make it oval. Try a “wedding-cake style” stack.

2:30 p.m. Carrot and turnip “drums” filled with seared foie gras and iced in a carrot purée are a hit – but the coaches want a different look. Time to source some miniature plates.

3 p.m. Ms. Pineda readies the last morsel for today's critique. The green mousse “I've made 15 times so far” is bulging out of its lacy yellow-beet wrapper and Mr. Sulatycky wants to see more “perfection” in the pearl onions balanced on top. Try again.

4 p.m. Mr. Sulatycky and Mr. Parkinson head to the airport to fly home to California and Calgary while Mr. Wong and Ms. Pineda start planning tomorrow's practice.