Apprentice chef takes out fourth place in national cooking competition

Stephanie Goetz has used her love of cooking to land a medal in one of Australia’s longest running culinary competitions for young chefs. Find out what the 19-year-old whipped up to take out her win.

Stephanie Goetz took out bronze and silver at the finals of the 2019 Nestle Golden Chef’s Hat Award.

Strathmore’s Stephanie Goetz is taking the culinary world by storm after winning fourth place in a national cooking competition.

The 19-year-old qualified for the national finals of the Nestle Golden Chef’s Hat Award after taking out first place at the regional finals in Victoria.

The budding chef took out silver medals for her main and dessert and a bronze medal for her entree with her teammate at the competition on September 9 and 10.

Ms Goetz said she was over the moon to have placed.

“I was super excited even though we didn’t win overall, even doing that well was so exciting,” Ms Goetz said.

Ms Goetz's main dish took out a silver medal at the competition.

The chef made mushroom and herb pithivier, creme fraiche and edible flowers for the entree and rolled lamb saddle stuffed with oats and herbs with lamb neck croquettes, baby vegetables and rosemary jus for the main.

For dessert the food lover made poached rhubarb with basil ice cream, chocolate mousse, almond crumble and rhubarb reduction and said that she loved to make desserts.

“I love making ice-cream, it’s my favourite thing to cook,” Ms Goetz said.

“It was the hardest thing to make, we couldn’t use an ice cream machine and had to do it by hand.”

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The winning dessert took out a silver medal at the competition.

The apprentice chef, who works at the RACV City Club, said she was “so nervous” during the competition.

“It was pretty intense with people watching and cameras filming us, I was so relieved when we plated up our dessert,” she said.

Ms Goetz said she had practised her dishes very hard before the big day.

“I destroyed my kitchen at home, mum was pretty annoyed by the end,” she said.

Ms Goetz said that cooking has always been a big passion of hers.

“Getting to cook for other people and seeing their faces when they enjoy the food is pretty rewarding,” Ms Goetz said.

“My dream is to work with Heston Blumenthal in London.”