Chefs in the making

The Murray River Culinary Challenge is an industry standard cooking competition for secondary school students enrolled in a Vocational Education and Training (VET) Hospitality Training Package.

The challenge spans five regions and involves more than 180 students attending 23 schools from Yarrawonga, Echuca, Shepparton, Swan Hill, Wangaratta and Wodonga districts.

This year four P-12 students, Cheyenne Howden, Dylan McDonald, Jayke Stell and Aaron Lawless Costello all took part in the three-tiered competition where they were judged by top industry representatives from the regions who donate their time and expertise.

This year those judges were Chef at the Sebel Kim Fitzpatrick and previous hospitality teacher and Yarrawonga Neighbourhood House staff member Lesley Gangi. Usually at the school level, students compete individually to vie for a spot in the Regional Final.

The two top scoring students from each school are then paired and compete as a team in the Regional Final with the top scoring team then progressing to the Grand Final.

Menus in each level of the competition become progressively more difficult and are designed for students to be able to demonstrate their skills learnt during their hospitality training. This is the second year that the MRCC has been substantially impacted by Covid-19 as there was no competition in 2020 and this year only the first tier (‘school level’) of the competition was able to take place due to lockdowns.

Four Yarrawonga College P-12 students were awarded for taking part in the Murray River Culinary Challenge (MRCC) last week, although this competition could not advance past the school level.

Despite this, the Yarrawonga College P-12 students and their trainer, Lynne Ferguson, have remained dedicated and were prepared to compete at the regional finals at Gotafe, had they gone ahead. “All hospitality students who do two years of a Certificate III hospitality (kitchen operation) compete at the school level and advance from there but with covid disruptions again this year, we could only compete at the school level,” Ms Ferguson said.

“It has been trying over covid and we were hoping the competition could go further this year and we were willing to go over to GoTafe however that unfortunately couldn’t happen but we were glad we could at least complete the school level competition.

“It was a close competition with Cheyenne just winning just in front of Jayke, Dylan and Aaron.”

As part of the challenge, the four students were presented with ingredients and a time frame before telling them to go for it, much like MasterChef challenges.

Both Cheyenne and Dylan said they would like to get into the hospitality industry.

“My forte at the moment is desserts but I’d like to do something in the hospitality industry,” Cheyenne said.

“Currently I’m working at IGA.”

“I’m working at the Criterion and working in different parts of the pub but I would like to get into hospitality,” Dylan said.

“My forte would be mains.”

Moira Shire Councillor Peter Mansfield attended the school last Wednesday to present the students with their certificates and congratulated them on their efforts.

Goulburn Murray LLEN assists the MRCC by coordinating the different stages of the competition, arranging venues, sponsors and providing resources for the judges, who are often past VET students who themselves participated in the MRCC.