2008 Nestlé Golden Chef’s Hat Award Winners
Kylie Harris (21) and Jody Smith (22), both chefs at Conrad Jupiters Gold Coast, have won the 2008 Nestlé Golden Chef's Hat Award national title achieving three gold medals for culinary excellence.
From 182 regional level competitors 16 talented young chefs cooked their way into the national mystery box cook-off heat, held at Melbourne’s William Angliss Institute on Tuesday 23 September, for the chance to secure themselves the national title and an international travel experience prize trip to attend the 2008 World Culinary Olympics in Erfurt, Germany.
Head Judge, George Hill from the Australian Culinary Federation comments: “We are proud to announce Kylie and Jody as the overall 2008 winners, with both young chefs putting in an outstanding effort to take home the national champions trophy and win a once in a lifetime culinary adventure to the 2008 World Culinary Olympics”.
“Getting through to the national finals is an achievement in itself and we congratulate all eight competing chef teams. They all produced dishes of a very high calibre under extremely pressured conditions,” said Mr Hill.
As recipients of the Nestlé Golden Chefs Hat Award, national winners Kylie and Jody will get to enjoy their prize trip to Germany next month where they will shadow the Australian team and have the opportunity to see them in action, meet with key industry people and catch up on the latest global culinary trends.
During the national final cook-off Kylie and Jody had just four hours to create a three-course meal to impress the judging panel, made up of Australian Culinary Federation national judges and National Culinary Olympic Team members.
The Queensland South team prepared crab lasagne and prawn boudin, with avocado and pear chutney, roast red bell pepper sauce and a sweet potato crisp for main course achieving a gold medal. This was followed by two more gold medals for their braised lamb entrée and jaffa assiette dessert.
The Nestlé Golden Chefs Hat Award is the only national competition for junior and apprentice chefs aged 23 years and under. The annual competition is coordinated by the Australian Culinary Federation, sponsored solely by Nestlé and supported by key event partners including Global-Pro Knives, Meat & Livestock Australia, FEI and The Sebel Albert Park.
The program aims to discover the next generation of great Australian chefs.
