Simplot Foodservice: Principal partner of the Australian Culinary Federation Young Chefs

A club for young chefs, run by young chefs

Established by the Australian Culinary Federation, Australian Young Chefs provides an educational mentoring forum for the next generation of up and coming chefs and aims to promote friendship, culinary excellence, cultural understanding and humanitarianism not only in Australia but around the world.

Australian Young Chefs take part in initiatives such as the Young Chef Culinary Culture Exchange Program and Bill Gallagher Young Chefs Forum. All chefs under the age of 25 who are financial members of the ACF are automatically members. DALE LYMAN, Australian advisor for Young Chef Development at World Association of Chefs Societies (WACS), has been instrumental in establishing Young Chefs across each state and territory in Australia and tells us more about the aims of this worthy organisation.

“The whole object is that it’s a club for young chefs, run by young chefs – it’s a networking platform, it’s to share ideas and information, and a means of forming friendships,” Dale explains. “The idea is for us old fellas to step back and let the young chefs step up and run it for themselves – my involvement is just to mentor, to be a source of advice and help keep things on track.”

Australian Young Chefs Chairperson is NT-based Jarrod Everett, while Billy Fox, sous chef at The Imperial at Clifton on the NSW South Coast, is Young Chefs Ambassador to WACS and will soon take Dale’s place in the organisation under a succession plan. There are also Young Chefs committee members across all states and territories who organise regular events. 

“Fundraising is a big part of Young Chefs,” Dale says, “and we also encourage competitions and training. Every two years we take a contingent of around 10 young chefs to the WACS Congress and we’ve been doing that since 2014 – we’ve been to Greece, Malaysia and most recently Abu Dhabi. We’ve hosted dinners to raise money to young chefs to attend, which is very worthwhile because it’s an amazing experience – when they get there they build friendships for life, the cultural experiences are incredible.”

Personal development is a high priority too, with Australian Young Chefs events regularly hosting guest speakers who have talked about topical concerns ranging from substance abuse to building workplace resilience.

Basically we want to equip young people to look after themselves as a young chef, so we’ll focus on anything that’s relevant and helpful,” Dale explains. “Obviously we don’t neglect the culinary side either – we run masterclasses on developing culinary skills, like how to make kimchi. We’ve recently done a masterclass on artisan breadmaking, we’re planning one on cheesemaking and chocolate-making – it’s all about sharing knowledge and helping young chefs expand their skills base.”

Monthly meetings were the norm for Australian Young Chefs pre-Covid, and the organisation is now focused on returning to that format following the events of the past several years. “We’re keen for young chefs to join up and spread the word to their colleagues – we’d like to bring more people in,” Dale affirms.

“In a way, Covid was a silver bullet for us – it helped build solidarity for Australian Young Chefs because we had to take all our meetings online. We found it was a lot easier to bring young chefs together virtually as opposed to in person because they’re all comfortable with the online world. Now we have the opposite situation, where everyone can get out and enjoy their freedom, and it’s harder for people to put aside time to attend. One of the big challenges for young chefs is to devote time to extracurricular activities when they’re busy working, but I think there’s increasing recognition that the rewards make it worth devoting the time.”

While competitions have long been a key focus for the ACF and are also a big part of Australian Young Chefs, Dale says “we try not to focus on that to the exclusion of the other equally important aspects. We do offer the opportunity to compete, but it’s just as much about networking with potential mentors and just having a social time with other like-minded young chefs. Burnout is a big problem in our industry, but if you have a support network you can turn to, you’re less likely to succumb to it.”

The upcoming ACF Conference will include a Young Chefs component and Dale encourages all Australian young chefs to try to make the time to attend. “We understand it’s difficult for many people right now, especially with the staff shortages which means employers are trying to do more with less staff,” he says, “but we hope that employers will support their young chefs and recognise the value of further education and masterclasses from clubs such as ourselves.”

If you’re an apprentice chef or know of a young chef that would be interested in joining the ACF Young Chefs, you can find out more by contacting deb@austculinary.com.au

You can also join their facebook page