Australia’s hopes for a strong performance at the prestigious international culinary competition named after star French chef Paul Bocuse are riding on some experienced shoulders.

Young chef Luke Croston—who represented Australia at the last Bocuse D’Or World Cuisine Contest in Lyons in France—will again go into battle at the high pressure event.

The Australian selectors for the competition announced that Croston had again been selected to compete at the Bocuse D’Or competition in 2009.

At the last Bocuse D’Or held in 2007 Croston and his then commis chef Vanessa Mateus came in 12th out of 24 teams—the best performance by the Australian team so far.

This time Croston will be accompanied by a new commis, Petros Dellidis, who is at the moment working at Melbourne restaurant The Press Club.

At the announcement, held at a glittering dinner at major sponsor Crown, Croston said he was excited about heading back to the competition. It will be his third time there—he also competed with chef George Calombaris at the competition in 2003, that time as Calombaris’s commis.

“It’s just an amazing competition,” said Croston “I can’t wait to get there.”

Croston will again train for the competition in the kitchens at Crown with the assistance of locally based French chefs Jacques Reymond and Philippe Mouchel. It is planned to also again bring out Serge Vieira, the French chef who won the Bocuse D’Or in 2005, to work one on one with Croston.

Walter Wagner, President of Bocuse d'Or Australia, said the selectors this time around had decided to side-step the usual cook-off process to select a team because it was believed Croston, with his experience and strong performance previously, presented the best opportunity for Australia to improve its standing.

Wagner said that the funds that would have been used to run the cook off will be able to be better spent in assisting with Croston’s training ahead of the event.

“We believe Luke has the experience and the technical skill to take Australia into the top 10 in 2009,” Wagner said. “The committee took the decision to use the resources usually allocated to a cook-off to enhance Luke’s training program over the next 10 months and give the Australian team the best possible chance of success.”