Australia’s Culinary Talent Shines at the 2026 ACF National Apprentice Competition & Culinary Challenge
/Australian Culinary Federation celebrates Australia’s next generation of chefs alongside outstanding professional culinary talent
The Australian Culinary Federation (ACF) is proud to announce the champions of the 2026 ACF National Apprentice Competition and ACF Culinary Challenge, celebrating outstanding culinary skill, dedication, creativity and professionalism.
Competitors representing Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales/ACT, Queensland and Tasmania, together with international competitors from Fiji, came together in Melbourne to test their skills under professional competition conditions.
From first-year apprentices taking an important early step in their careers to final-year apprentices preparing to become qualified chefs, culinary students and experienced professionals, the competitions showcased the depth and diversity of culinary talent developing across Australia and the Pacific region.
2026 ACF National Apprentice Competition
The ACF National Apprentice Competition brings together some of the country’s most promising apprentices and culinary students, providing an important national platform to benchmark their skills, develop their confidence and compete alongside their peers.
🏆 1st Year Apprentice Chef Champion
Fiona Heyink | Western Australia
Fiona Heyink delivered an exceptional performance to be named the 2026 ACF 1st Year Apprentice Chef Champion.
Congratulations to Fiona and all the first-year competitors who represented their regions with professionalism and demonstrated an impressive level of skill so early in their culinary careers.
🏆 2nd Year Apprentice Chef Champion
Bray Royle | Tasmania
Tasmania’s Bray Royle produced an outstanding performance to take out the title of 2026 ACF 2nd Year Apprentice Chef Champion.
The category showcased another talented group of young chefs continuing to develop their technical ability, confidence and professional skills.
🏆 Culinary Student Champion
Zetong Zhang | Victoria
Victoria’s Zetong Zhang delivered an outstanding performance to be crowned the 2026 ACF Culinary Student Champion.
The Culinary Student category continues to demonstrate the strength of the talent emerging through Australia’s culinary education and training sector.
🏆 Final Year Apprentice Chef Champion
Kara Oxley | Victoria
Victoria’s Kara Oxley delivered an exceptional performance to win the Final Year Apprentice category and claim the prestigious title of:
🏆 2026 ACF CHAMPION APPRENTICE OF THE YEAR
Kara’s achievement represents an important milestone in her developing culinary career and recognises the skill, professionalism and commitment required to succeed at national competition level.
2026 ACF Culinary Challenge
The 2026 ACF Culinary Challenge brought together chefs and teams across a diverse program including the Street Food Challenge, Team Challenge, Yum Cha Challenge, Individual Live Classes and Static Classes.
Throughout the competition, participants demonstrated technical skill, creativity, teamwork, consistency and professionalism under the pressure of live competition.
🏆 Street Food Challenge Champions
Courtney Short & Jordan Murphy | Western Australia
The 2026 Street Food Challenge was one of the most hotly contested categories of the competition, attracting six team entries for the first time ever.
After an outstanding competition, Courtney Short and Jordan Murphy from Western Australia were crowned the 2026 Street Food Challenge Champions.\🏆 Team Challenge Champions
Isireli David Chong & Filipe Miramara | Fiji
This year’s Team Challenge took on an exciting international dimension with two teams from Fiji joining the competition.
Isireli David Chong and Filipe Miramara produced the winning performance to become the 2026 Team Challenge Champions.
The ACF congratulates our Fijian competitors for bringing an international dimension to the competition and contributing to a fantastic event.
🥟 Yum Cha Challenge
Two Australian teams battled it out in the 2026 Yum Cha Challenge, demonstrating technical skill, consistency, teamwork and presentation.
Congratulations to Ying Cai & Chui Ying Tweety Leung and Aaron Rodrigues & Mei Peng Siew on their performances in this highly technical team challenge.
🔥 Individual Live & Static Classes
The Individual Live and Static Classes provided competitors with the opportunity to demonstrate their skills across a broad range of specialist culinary disciplines.
From meat, seafood and poultry through to desserts and other live challenges, chefs stepped into the competition arena to benchmark their skills and test themselves under pressure.
The ACF congratulates every competitor who participated.
Competitors who entered the Individual Static Classes are asked to contact Deb Foreman for their individual results.
🏆 2026 Most Outstanding Apprentice/Trainee Chef
THANH THAO DO
The Most Outstanding Apprentice/Trainee Chef award recognises exceptional performance and consistency across multiple competition disciplines.
🌟 2026 ACF Most Outstanding Chef of the Year
DEV GHANDI
The battle for 2026 ACF Most Outstanding Chef of the Year saw an exceptional field of chefs competing across multiple classes.
After an outstanding performance across three classes, Dev Ghandi achieved three Gold Medals to claim the competition’s major professional individual honour.
🏆 2026 ACF MOST OUTSTANDING CHEF OF THE YEAR
DEV GHANDI
🥇 GOLD 🥇 GOLD 🥇 GOLD
Three classes. Three Gold Medals. One outstanding achievement.
Congratulations Dev Ghandi, the 2026 ACF Most Outstanding Chef of the Year.
Celebrating Australia’s Culinary Future
The Australian Culinary Federation congratulates every apprentice, culinary student, chef and team who participated in the 2026 National Apprentice Competition and Culinary Challenge.
Culinary competition provides chefs at every stage of their careers with an opportunity to benchmark their skills, challenge themselves, learn from their peers and demonstrate their abilities in a professional competition environment.
The ACF extends its sincere thanks to the competitors, judges, mentors, employers, educators, sponsors, volunteers and supporters whose contribution made these national competitions possible.
From emerging apprentices and culinary students to experienced professional chefs and our international competitors from Fiji, the standard demonstrated throughout the event reflects the skill, diversity and passion that continue to drive our industry forward.
Supporting, developing and celebrating Australia’s culinary professionals.
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