Adelaide Oval apprentice chef Abbey Wendland and commis chef Mahlet Girma have become the first South Australians to win the country’s longest-running competition for young chefs – the Nestlé Golden Chef’s Hat Award.
The Nestlé competition began in 1965 and offers apprentices and junior chefs the opportunity to pit themselves against their peers and benchmark their cooking skills.
Wendland and Girma competed against Australia’s ten best junior chef teams to take out the title and win themselves a culinary trip to North America.
The teams competed live at the Fine Food Australia tradeshow in Melbourne over two days, where they cooked-off in front of thousands of show attendees in purpose-built commercial kitchens.
The Adelaide Oval duo’s winning menu included an entrée of cured ocean trout, textures of beetroot and pickled turnip; a main course of sous vide pork, pickled mushroom, roasted baby vegetables, pork wonton; and a trio of mousse, lemon curd and coconut almond soil for dessert.
They earned themselves silver medals for their entrée and main and a gold medal for their dessert course.
“We are extremely proud and thrilled for Mahlet and Abbey; they are fantastic ambassadors for South Australia and we think their success speaks volumes for the way in which we approach our quality food at Adelaide Oval,” said Adelaide Oval SMA CEO Andrew Daniels.
