Victoria's successful annual food festival Melbourne Food and Wine has joined forces with dairy giant Fonterra to launch a new national program for apprentice chefs to participate in a weekend of masterclasses and exciting networking opportunities during the festival.
The new Fonterra Foodservices Proud to be a Chef program has the backing of highly respected chefs from both overseas and in Australia including Philip Howard (The Square, London), Ryan Clift (Tippling Club, Singapore), Ben Shewry (Attica, Melbourne), Justin North (Becasse, Sydney) and Alistair McLeod (Brett's Wharf, Brisbane).
The new program is aimed at identifying and recognising the up and coming stars of the restaurant industry amd giving apprentice chefs the chance to increase their knowledge and expertise.
In this first year thirty students who are "proud to be a chef" have been selected from Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria to participate in the weekend of March 21-23.
They'll participate in a range of masterclasses with chefs, produce experts, and sommeliers as well as a number of other informal networking events, as well as attending the popular Global Trend forum which will be a key drawcard at this year's Melbourne Food and Wine event.
One of the apprentice chefs will then be selected and awarded a month long placement beside Philip Howard at The Square.
Ben Shewry and Justin North this week got together at Attica for the official launch of the program where together they presented a degustation menu.
Shewry said he was very pleased to be involved with anything that helps young chefs. "Although Ive had the help of a significant mentor there was no program like this when I was younger and at times it would have helped enormously," he said.
North said he looked forward to sharing with the next generation his own experiences a a younge chef. "I hope to inspire them to be creative in their own approach to cooking - starting of course with the best produce."
There are plans to open the program to apprentice chefs in other states in future years.