Jonathan Sharp (HTN – Hospitality Employment Solutions)

In 2011, our humble cooking competition took on a life of its own! HTN have run the HTN Apprentice Chef Culinary Competition for many years now and it has been Australia’s biggest Apprentice competition for a while, but this year it made a little jump forward and a few factors made this happen.

First of all the competition is getting the recognition it deserves. There are very few opportunities for a young apprentice chef to see how their skills stack up against other apprentices working in a different environment. The HTN comp is designed for exactly that purpose, so a 2nd year apprentice chef, working in a country club, can see where they are against a 2nd year in a city restaurant. It is also designed so that these apprentices can network and get some honest feedback. The second factor is that we know have a group of sponsors who can bring some real wow prizes to the competition. In 2011 we are awarding $10,000 in cash, massive amounts of industry prizes, trophies and a Moped thanks to Profiline Cookware and a cruise! The third is the sheer size. In 2011 we are expecting 300 registrations over 13 heats and for the first time a heat in Melbourne.

The high performing HTN apprentice chefs are also being invited to submit their applications for the 2011 HTN Peter Howard Scholarship which gives one lucky apprentice a trip to the UK plus $5,000 to design their own culinary adventure.

So when it came to choosing the date for the Grand Final, it made sense to move it to coincide with the Skills One Skills Week. We want to showcase commercial cookery and the skills involved in being an apprentice chef – this year the tagline for the comp was “Cooking is a spectator sport” and have worked hard to give the public access to the competition and the finished plates at each heat. Check out the photos on our website and our facebook page.