Category: Country

The Australian Culinary Federation Fonterra Foodservice National Apprentice Competition Final was held at West Coast Institute of Training, Joondalup Campus on Wednesday 14th October.

Apprentices from all Australian States & Territories arrived Monday & hit the ground running on Tuesday morning when it was off to the markets with a budget to purchase their ingredients for the competition. With products sponsored from Fonterra, Bidvest, Nestle Professional & Krio Krush combined with their purchases the teams spent the afternoon preparing for the competition & tweaking the final details of their menus. They have come together for a week of comaradrie, networking & education including dining at White Salt, touring The Swan Valley & culminating in a Gala Dinner at WCIT on Thursday evening. The awards were presented at the beginning of the evening prior to being treated to an exceptional meal prepared by the ACF National Youth Team.

Western Australian apprentices cleaned up at the awards night taking out top honours in 3 categories Culinary Student, 2nd Year Apprentice Chef, 3rd/4th Year Apprentice Chef, Northern Territory was awarded champion 1st Year Apprentice Chef & first time competitor Rachel Zwarts from South Australia prepared the best omelette on the day. Perth 3rd Year Apprentice & ACF National Youth Team member Brody – Young Steedman from Co – Op Dining was named Champion Apprentice of the Year taking home a R211 Ultra sponsored by Robot Coupe

The NAC is a culmination of many apprentice competitions being held throughout the year in each state and territory and includes training chefs in each year of apprenticeship and a culinary students section. The best apprentice from each apprentice year and culinary student section from each state and territory are brought together to compete and decide the overall winners. The numbers of competitors, training schools, culinary educators that the NAC touches is staggering with in excess of 4,000 culinary students and teachers, each with links to industry resulting in exposure to over 10,000 chefs throughout Australia.

Medal Results

Culinary Students

Jerome Poret                SA         Bronze

Christel Darion              Vic       Silver

Kuo heng Lin                  WA       Gold & Champion Culinary Student

2^nd Year Apprentice Chefs

Joshua Lee                    NSW    Bronze

Kelsea House                TAS       Silver

Wade Fordham            VIC       Silver

Nick Donovan              ACT      Silver

Ross Maxwell                 SA         Silver

Mark Johnson                WA       Gold & Champion 2^nd Year Apprentice

1^st Year Apprentice Chefs

Hugh Walters                TAS       Silver

Kasae Fraser                  VIC       Silver

Linh Khanh Tran             WA       Silver

Rachel Zwarts               SA         Silver

Zoe Drew                        NSW    Silver

Christopher Carr          QLD      Silver

Jasmine Sawa              ACT      Gold

Maria Hoad                   WA       Gold & Champion 1^st Year Apprentice

3^rd/4^th Year Apprentice Chefs

Sheila Mae Hobbs       QLD      Participation

Sammantha Devlin     ACT      Silver

Tumelo Nthupi              SA         Silver

Tenille Brazel                 NSW    Silver

Brad Sutton                   VIC       Gold

Brody Young – Steedman        WA   Gold Champion 3/4^th year Apprentice & Apprentice of the Year

For more information please contact Deb Foreman [email protected]

Photos at www.austculinary.com.au & ACF Face book

The 2015 Australian Culinary Challenge was highlight of the year in culinary competition in Australia, held at the Sydney Showground and Sydney Olympic Park as part of Fine Food Australia from September 20th – 23rd inclusive. Chefs, trainees and apprentices pitted their skills against each other and against the clock, competing for a share of cash and prizes. This year’s exciting competition highlights included the inaugural ‘Fonterra Foodservice Battle of the Pacific’, Nestle Golden Chefs Hat National Final celebrating its 50th Year Anniversary & Hospitality Training Network National Final.

The culmination of months of training by the competitors individually & in teams paid off with over 200 medals in all colours presented over the course of the 4 day event. The major awards presented on Wednesday evening at Mecure Parramatta totalled $20,000 in cash & prizes sponsored by Fonterra Foodservice, Peugeot Salt & Pepper mills & Tanita Scales.

 Sunday morning the first 10 live entrants hit the kitchens at the same time NSW, Victoria 1 & South Australia started cooking in the Fonterra Foodservice Battle of the Pacific. The pace was manic for the first hour as entrants familiarized themselves with the kitchens filled with equipment from Moffat, Robot Coupe, Net Chef, Mak Catering commercial Kitchen Hire & all the utensils on loan from Northern Sydney Institute of TAFE. Nestle Golden Chefs Hat Final first 4 teams commenced at the same time lunch service began for the restaurant & the cooking arena was alive with aromas emanating from all kitchens including the chefs lounge where chefs & sponsors networked & the barista’s from Hennessy coffee kept all fuelled with caffeine.

Monday Auckland 1, ACT & WA battled it out in the restaurants & the record number of entries in the static competition began to set up. Nestle Golden Chefs Hat Final 5 teams heated up the live kitchen arena & MC Peter Howard had a busy time covering everything at once. Perfect Italiano was showcased in the Chefs lounge & the pizza oven worked overtime feeding hungry competitors, members & sponsors.

Tuesday it was the HTN & Futura Apprentice Chef Culinary Competition that started first of 2 days jam packed with individual events filling all the kitchens till 5pm. NSW Juniors, Victoria 2 & Otago challenged each other in the restaurant live kitchens & tables full of sponsors were treated with some great food. Sweets using Nestle Panna Cotta & Crème Brulee were indulged by those that visited the chef’s lounge.

Wednesday 35 competitors vied for the top honour of being named Most Outstanding in their class when they completed the last their live competitions, most outstanding chef was hotly contested & came down to the wire in the last event. Auckland 2 & Vanuatu battled it out with home grown Tasmanian team in the Fonterra Foodservice Restaurant kitchens. Farmer Joe’s & Heng Australia provided sustenance for hundreds of judges, competitors, sponsors & members who visited the chef’s lounge during the course of the week.

The Australian Culinary Challenge Awards presentation was the highlight of the week with the room packed with chefs eagerly awaiting final results for the major awards & presentation of medals & prizes for the 12 teams that competed in Fonterra Foodservice Battle of the Pacific. Chef Kurt Von Buren topped off his week as Chairman of judges providing an awesome spread of food & with sincere gratitude thanked to all who had taken time from busy schedules to judge & scrutineer at the event & at NSI Ryde in the prep kitchens. President Neil Abrahams “This has been an awesome event & the biggest one to date in NSW, the chapter committee & those who have assisted in the organisation of this event are to be commended for their passion & dedication in making this competition so successful in 2015”

The Australian Culinary Federation wishes to express our sincere gratitude to all sponsors of The Australian Culinary Challenge their generous contributions have helped make our vision for this competition a reality.

 AWARDS

The following awards each received a trophy & a set Peugeot Clermont Duo Salt & Pepper Mills

Le Cordon Bleu Best Centrepiece in Show

Awarded to the individual who scores the highest in savoury or sweet centrepiece category, with a Gold medal the award goes to                       ANDRE SANDISON

Gourmand Providor Best Static Display

Awarded to the individual who has the highest score from class in S & C categories with a Gold medal the award goes to                                        PAULA SOARES MEARS

Chef Works Best Decorated Cake

Awarded to the competitor with the highest overall score in the decorated cake category.

KATEY SHAW

Mastercut Best Live Challenge

Awarded to the individual who has the highest score in over all the live individual competitions.

TAMAR SEVER

Moffat Most Outstanding Establishment.

Trophy awarded to the establishment with the highest accumulative score over all categories and all competitors                                         LE CORDON BLEU

The following award received $1000 & a set of Tanita Scales + Peugeot Clermont Duo Salt & Pepper Mills

Bidvest Most Outstanding Chef.

To be eligible to win you must compete in two (2) open live competition Categories & must have competed in at least One (1) static competition. You must achieve at least one (1) Gold Medal in each live and static category. The Chef with the highest aggregate score & is the Bidvest Most Outstanding Chef 2015

LESLIE CHAN VICTORIA

Fonterra Food Service Battle of the Pacific

CERTIFICATE OF MERIT

South Australia                      Lorenc Dylgjeri, Takuma Yoneoka & Jerome Poret

BRONZE MEDAL                      

ACT                                        Daren Tetley, Corey Pont & Jasmine Sawa

NSW JUNIOR                          Hou Chin Tang, Alex Kim Jiang Tan & Armesia Erwanto

Vanuatu                                Andy Abel, Precilla Bakeo & Roslyne Tari              

SILVER MEDAL

Victoria 1                               Leslie Chan, Tom Brockbank & Jesse

Auckland 1                            David Schofield, John Kelleher & Daniel Heslewood

Victoria 2                               Trevor Jenkins, Andrew Ballard & Annie Lao

Auckland 2                            William Mordido, Jeremy Schmid & Kristy Tse

Tasmania                               Michel Norton, Craig Wills & Brigid Mallett

GOLD MEDAL             

3rd place for Fonterra Foodservice Restaurant Challenge 2015 trophy

OTAGO                                  Ken O Connell, Corey Hume & Blaike Haines

2nd place Fonterra Foodservice Restaurant Challenge 2015

NEW SOUTH WALES                Matt Weller, Matt Breis & Young Hak Ho

Champion Team of the Fonterra Foodservice Restaurant Challenge 2015

WESTERN AUSTRALIA              Gwyn Ellis, Iari Prassi & Sophie Cornes

Photos www.austculinary.com.au or ACF Facebook

For more information please contact Deb Foreman [email protected]         

The Inaugural Fonterra Foodservice Battle of the Pacific held during The Australian Culinary Challenge at Fine Foods Australia this week culminated Wednesday night with Western Australian Gold medal winners being crowned Champion Team. Gwyn Ellis, Iari Prassi & Sophie Cornes from Clarkes of North Beach were presented their trophies & prizes by Jeff Dhu Food Service Director of Fonterra Foodservice the principal sponsors of the event. The ACF are proud of our long standing relationship with Fonterra Foodservice & the support from their team has been instrumental in the development of this competition.

 This new title for the competition was hotly contested by 8 regional Australian teams as well as Pacific region teams 3 from New Zealand and 1 from Vanuatu. Three teams went head to head each day preparing & serving meals to guests that included sponsors, industry professionals, team supporters & the jury that consisted not only of kitchen judges Michael Strautmanis, Anita Sarginson (NZ Chefs Ambassador) & Matt McBain but included each day 9 secret taste judges throughout the restaurant.

Michael “As a first competition of this magnitude and inventiveness it was an outstanding success and a firm foundation to keep building onto this concept. My congratulations to all of the participants, the spirit of the competition was outstanding”

 Using mandatory ingredients from the Fonterra Foodservice range teams displayed great use and diversity of product. The rest of the pantry list was donated by generous sponsors Bidvest, Mastercut meats, Gourmand Providor, Nestle Professional, Petuna & Krio Krush. An interesting blend of techniques, menu descriptions and elements on the plate were the order of the competition as was the high level of skill that is always present when international teams cross our shores.

Judges “All the teams clearly demonstrated that products of such high quality provided a great influence on the dishes”

 The Australian Culinary Federation wishes to express our sincere gratitude to all sponsors of The Australian Culinary Challenge their generous contributions have helped make our vision for this competition a reality.

Results

CERTIFICATE OF MERIT

South Australia                    Lorenc Dylgjeri, Takuma Yoneoka & Jerome Poret

BRONZE                   

ACT                                        Daren Tetley, Corey Pont & Jasmine Sawa

NSW   JUNIOR                    Hou Chin Tang, Alex Kim Jiang Tan & Armesia Erwanto

Vanuatu                               Andy Abel, Precilla Bakeo & Roslyne Tari                      

SILVER

Victoria 1                              Leslie Chan, Tom Brockbank & Jessica Sewell

Auckland 1                           David Schofield, John Kelleher & Daniel Heslewood

Victoria 2                              Trevor Jenkins, Andrew Ballard & Annie Lao

Auckland 2                           William Mordido, Jeremy Schmid & Kristy Tse

Tasmania                             Michel Norton, Craig Wills & Brigid Mallett

GOLD

In 3rd place for Fonterra Foodservice Restaurant Challenge 2015

OTAGO

Ken O Connell, Corey Hume & Blaike Haines

In 2nd place Fonterra Foodservice Restaurant Challenge

NEW SOUTH WALES

Matt Weller, Matt Breis & Young Hak Ho

Champion Team Fonterra Foodservice Restaurant Challenge 2015

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Gwyn Ellis, Iari Prassi & Sophie Cornes