After weeks of preparation, a group of Australian high students has put in a strong performance at the annual International Secondary Schools Culinary Competition and will be bringing home silver and bronze medals.
Organised by the Australian Culinary Federation Queensland chapter, the competition saw students from Australia, Japan, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Taiwan and Tahiti compete in the competition over the past two days.
Australian students Brett Waslin and Joshua Brown from St. Edmonds College Canberra received silver for their assiette of duck, while Runcorn State High School students Kimberley Swaysland and Danielle Wagner received bronze for their lamb and turned vegetables with zucchini custard.
However it was the team from Tahiti that took out the overall award. The winning dish by students from the Lyce Hotelier hospitality school in Tahiti, where the competition was held, included poached and then grilled chicken, mushroom and cauliflower pasta and a poached tomato filled with pumpkin.
The judges, from Australian and Tahiti, awarded four golds, two silvers and two bronzes to the participants who were required to create four main dishes in one hour.
The competition began as a local initiative on the Gold Coast, before growing to a national competition and finally an international competition in 2005 and is likely to continue growing, said the contest director Allan Parker.
“It is an acknowledgment of the achievements of our young chefs, who have been working very hard in kitchens, who will become our future leading chefs,” he said. “I’m convinced that the dishes presented at the competition could rival some of the greatest chefs in the industry today.”
Hospitality teacher at Runcorn State High School, Lyn Albin, said she focused on teaching her students the basics such as hygiene, safety and presentation because, that is what they get judged on while in the kitchen.
To prepare for the competition the Runcorn team spent six hours a week training for six weeks while other teams practice anywhere between four and eight hours a week.
Other medals awarded include gold for Tahiti team two, New Zealand and Japan, silver for Taiwan and bronze for New Caledonia.