Creative Canterbury Bankstown chefs vie for Chef’s Table awards
Daniella Digby from Revesby Workers Club is vying for her third title at the prestigious Chef’s Table honours.
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The experienced Digby won in 2014 and 2015 and is one of the frontrunners for honours in the 2019 Chef’s Table, a MasterChef-style cook-off for NSW clubs.
In addition to her, chefs from Bankstown Sports Club, Bankstown RSL, The Acres Club, Club Rivers and Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL are also in the running for honours this year.
The winners will be announced at a gala dinner at Chef’s Table partner venue Doltone House, Sydney, on August 5. More than 90 chefs from 45 clubs took part in the Chef’s Table at Ryde TAFE from July 16-18.
The local chefs include Freddie Salim, Thanh Ngo, Sammy Carbone, Son Dang, Cameron Murden and Tony Chayna.
All contestants had to make dishes from the Mystery Box, which when opened, was found to include: chicken liver, chicken hearts, whole corn-fed chicken, preserved figs, unsalted butter, cooking cream, kohlrabi, cavlo nero, four types of mushrooms, daikon radish, kestrel potato, dutch carrots, grapefruit and raspberries.
The 2017 apprentice winner Cameron Murden from Bankstown Sports Clubis is back but as a chef de partie.
Murden has competed for the past three years and said he hopes the judges will like their creation he made with Tony Chayna.
“We really focused on flavours this year and tasted everything as we went along, to make sure each individual component would match with the others,” he said.
“I’m really proud of what we came up with and hopefully the judges liked it too.”
Chayna, who has taken part twice, is happy with how they performed this year.
“We just went in there and tried not to pay any attention to what the other teams were cooking,” Chayna said.
“We had a game plan and although we didn’t know what ingredients we were going to be cooking with, we wanted to focus on creating a meal that looked great and tasted even better.”
Sammy Carbone and Son Dang are representing The Acres Club for first time and said they were a bit apprehensive before quickly picking up the pace.
“We were a little nervous at the start because you have no idea what you are walking in to, and you have no way of practising or preparing,” Son said.
“But after looking at all of the ingredients we were able to come up with a few ideas pretty quickly.”
Carbone said it took him out of his comfort zone in a good way.
“It’s a very different experience cooking in someone else’s kitchen,” he said.
“It’s a little awkward when you first walk in because you don’t know where anything is, but once you work that out, you can get into a good routine.”
“The overall experience was really good. I think all young chefs should give it a go at least once.
“When you cook from the same menu each day you know exactly what to expect, but something like this gets you out of your comfort zone and forces you to try new things.”
Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL’s Thanh Ngo and Freddie Salim said they are thrilled to be taking part for the first time and did practice with their own mystery items.
“I was a great opportunity to challenge ourselves,” Ngo said. “We’ll definitely be back next year.
“Because we knew there was going to be a mystery box, we experimented with our own versions of a mystery box beforehand, and practised cooking techniques that we would be able to apply to whatever was thrown at us!”
“We’re really happy with what we served up, some elements we’re even thinking will end up carrying through and featuring on our Nu Bambu menu in the club.”
IN OTHER NEWS
The competition highlights the culinary talents of chefs and demonstrates that clubs
are among the best dining destinations in the state.
ClubsNSW CEO Anthony Ball said the competition aims to showcase the industry’s accomplished chefs and the food that they produce.
The dishes will be judged by top chefs Julio Azzarello and Adam Moore, former MasterChef contestant Courtney Roulston, The Red Spoon Company’s Nenad Djuric and World Association of Chefs Societies judge Roshan Thammitaarachchi.
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