TAFE NSW students have excelled at the Nestlé Golden Chef’s Hat Award competition, bringing home eight medals from the live cook-off event, recently held in Grafton.

Eight TAFE NSW students competed at the Regional Cook-Off held at the Grafton campus – achieving five gold medals and three silver. The medals are awarded based on a point scoring system and the dishes are judged to globally recognised standards.

The Regional and Metro Cook-Offs are still taking place at various locations around Australia and New Zealand – with one winner from each region to proceed to the Grand Final Cook-Off, to be held at Fine Food Australia in September.

TAFE NSW Commercial Cookery Teacher Bernadette Ryan said she is incredibly proud of the students, who trained for weeks leading up to the event.

“It was such a rewarding experience for them, and these incredible results demonstrate the quality of their work – and how much they have learned,” she said.

“This competition is an opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge, connect with the broader industry and demonstrate their talent. We are proud to be involved in such an important event, given our focus is on providing the practical training and real work experience they need, to excel in their jobs.”

“These students are the workforce of the future of the hospitality and food services industry, so it’s important they are exposed to situations that test their resolve under pressure.”

Apprentice and Certificate III in Commercial Cookery student Emmanuelle Das-Neves Ramos was a gold medal winner. She said it was a great opportunity to experiment and get creative.

“I was really able to take all the skills I’m learning through my studies at TAFE and push myself to create dishes that are a bit more ‘out there’ – perfecting techniques I don’t normally use every day.”

“Competitions like this help to develop your skills in a high stakes environment. I was able to practice my workflow processes, to ensure each component of the menu was ready at the right time, at the correct
temperature.”

“A gold medal in the Regional Cook-Off is a great boost to my resume – and the overall teams result just goes to show what can be achieved if you work hard and have a supportive learning environment.”

Media contact: Lauren McAllister, TAFE NSW Communications Specialist, 0432 929 941