Time to shine – young chefs rising to the challenge of Nestlé Golden Chef’s Hat Awards 2020

Australia’s longest-running culinary competition, the Nestlé Golden Chef’s Hat Award is celebrating its 55th year in 2020 – and the organisers were determined that neither lockdowns nor travel restrictions would stop it going ahead.

“Our goal was always to keep the competition alive and well – there was no thought of cancelling it, so we had to find a way through,” reports Head Judge and Executive Chef Mark Clayton of Nestlé Professional.

The competition gives apprentice chefs from all over Australia and New Zealand the opportunity to put their culinary skills to the test against their peers, and the usual procedure for the regional finals is to have teams of two competing against others in their region.

“But that wasn’t a viable option this year, so the decision was made to move to single entrants and from a physical cook-off to a digital entry delivered via video,” Mark explains.

“Given the impact of the lockdowns, some of these young chefs were in the frontline of the fallout – that’s been borne out by the skyrocketing youth unemployment rates and the fact that the hospitality industry has been particularly impacted. Many young chefs have been stood down or had their work hours reduced, and we wanted to give them a bit of a lifeline so they could express who they are as a chef and have a chance to shine.”

Prior to the decision to move to video entries, the competition had already been opened up to include New Zealand chefs for the first time – and organisers were keen to ensure that they would have the opportunity to remain involved. “Going digital meant we could retain our New Zealand entrants who, like the Australian apprentices, were asked to create a three minute video showcasing a dish of their choice.

“We’ve had some outstanding entries and we’re really excited about the fresh talent that’s come into this year’s competition as a result,” Karlie says. “We’ve had three alumni finalists but the remaining seven are new to the competition, including two impressive talents from New Zealand. The video submissions were judged with a winner for each region, so everyone was still competing against their regional peers.”

With the final scheduled for 10 November, and a virtual awards ceremony to follow a week later on 17 November, the plan is to have each finalist competing in a culinary institution. Two Australian Culinary Federation or NZ Chefs judges will be onsite to taste the food, and at the same time livestream their entry to a panel of remote judges who will conduct sense-checking and ensure the same criteria is applied to all competitors. 

In their video entries each apprentice chef had to address a series of questions ranging from why they chose to become a chef to their most memorable culinary experience, as well as talk through their choice of dish and explain how they prepared it. “They presented themselves in chef’s whites and for a bit of fun we also introduced six video category awards – we wanted to acknowledge those entries that didn’t necessarily achieve finalist status but were nevertheless very entertaining to watch.” 

“We have strived to be flexible in our approach and obviously that’s paid off. I was really pleased with the response from the entrants – it’s reiterated that there is a great need for this competition, and that our young chefs are keen to rise to the challenge.”