Following the closing of the S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2016 registration on April 7, ten semi-finalists from Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands have been selected from thousands of applications submitted to FineDiningLovers.com.
The event is an extraordinary opportunity for participants to compete and learn from other talent, gain global visibility, and associate with some of the most renowned chefs on the planet, such as the Seven Sages grand finale jury, David Higgs, Carlo Cracco, Gaggan Anand, Elena Arzak, Mauro Colagreco, Wylie Dufresne and Roberta Sudbrack.
There’s a long road ahead to the Young Chef finals in October, and ALMA – the world’s leading international educational and training centre for Italian Cuisine has already been hard at work. The acclaimed cooking school, in charge of the competition’s regional semi-finalists selection, divided the thousands of applications received into twenty geographic regions and selected ten semi-finalists from each region according to the five Golden Rules: ingredients, skills, genius, beauty and massage.
For Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands the local challenge will be held on Monday 25th July at Crown Culinarium, Melbourne. The judging panel will consist of: Peter Gilmore, Quay, Peter Doyle, Est and Jacques Reymond, L’Hotel Gitan, with the addition of Andrew McConnell, Supernormal; and Adam D’Sylva, Coda. The individual winners from each geographic area will then move on to the international finals.
The twenty finalists will compete in the Grand Finale on October 13th in Milan, which will include two demanding days of cooking in front of the Seven Sages jury that will determine the winner of S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2016.
S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2016 offers young, talented chefs the ultimate opportunity. The program was created by S.Pellegrino to reaffirm its commitment to the promotion of emerging talents and to diffusing fine dining culture throughout the world.
Australia and New Zealand’s 10 selected semi-finalists include:
- Kha-wai Lo, Matteos Restaurant, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Zackary Furst, Ides, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Leslie Hottiaux, Apero Food & Wine, Auckland, New Zealand
- Josh Barlow, The Grove Restaurant, Auckland, New Zealand
- Gareth Robbs, Bistro Molines, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
- Jeremy Metivier, Cottage Point Inn, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Christopher Walker, Roots Restaurant, Christchurch, New Zealand
- Tom Hishon, Orphans Kitchen, Auckland, New Zealand
For more information:
HotHouse Media & Events +61 3 9682 0222
John Flower – Mob +61 414 778 277 – john@hhme.com.au
Corey Croft – Mob +61 468 897 764 – corey@hhme.com.au
Rudi Morgan – Mob +61 468 664 457 – rudi@hhme.com.au