The seventh annual Hunter Culinary Association Food Fight saw chefs from the Hunter Valley and Sydney city go head-to-head, with each team plating up three dishes to be judged by 375 diners.
The event raises money for the Brett Graham Scholarship fund as well as food rescue organisation, OzHarvest.
Each team comprised four chefs and prepared three dishes to be sampled and judged by the lunch’s guests.
The menu for the day included Petuna Ocean Trout, miso, persimmon, pickles and sesame (Sydney team); alongside the competing entree of Ocean Trout pastrami, sauerkraut, cream cheese mousse, pickled cucumber, mustard and rye (Hunter team). Mains were a charred rump cap with king brown mushroom (Hunter team); and a Paroo ‘Roosini’ (a spin on the classic Banc dish, prepared by the Sydney team). Essence of lemon tart (Sydney team) was served together with soft chocolate with macadamia and crisp natives (Hunter team) for dessert.
The Hunter team was made up of Troy Rhoades-Brown (Muse Dining), Chris Thornton (Restaurant Mason), Gareth Robbs (Bistro Molines) and Josh Gregory (EXP Restaurant), while the Sydney team included ex-Banc Restaurant chefs Warren Turnbull (Chur Burger), Colin Fassnidge (4Fourteen), Justin North (Hotel Centennial) and Matt Kemp (Q Station).
Hunter Culinary Association chairman, Ben Neil, said “All 375 guests were astounded at the ingenuity and quality of the dishes and it made it extremely hard for them to vote for a winner but I am delighted to announce that the Hunter team won the day’s battle.”
The Hunter team
