TWO young Border chefs will work in one of the world’s most prestigious restaurants after they were yesterday announced as recipients of the David O’Dea Scholarship.
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Simon Kalis of Wodonga and Rosey Payne of Beechworth are both third-year apprentice chefs who study once a week under the stewardship of award-winning commercial cookery teacher David O’Dea of the Albury campus of Riverina Institute of TAFE.
The annual scholarship, which Mr O’Dea began to give up-and-coming chefs a chance of working with the nation’s finest chefs at metro restaurants, will see the two apprentices travel to Sydney to work at Justin North’s Becasse and Etch restaurants.
There they will learn to prepare dishes such as carpaccio of marinated coral trout confit octopus, Sichuan pepper jellies and white miso vinaigrette.
Mr North, a two-hatted chef and the 2009 Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide chef of the year, was at Sourcedining in Albury yesterday in his position as sponsor chef of the scholarship program.
He met the recipients of the scholarship who were under the tutelage of Sourcedining chef Jodie Jones for the day, preparing a fundraising lunch for the scholarship.
Mr North said it was an honour to be able to give country kids a leg-up at the start of their career by supporting the scholarship.
“I thought it sounded like a great initiative, I believe our industry in regional Australia needs all the support it can get,” he said.
“In order to keep our industry sustainable it is important we invest our time, knowledge and experience back into groundroots level.”
Becasse has been named by Restaurant Magazine (UK) as one of the top 100 restaurants in the world.
Yesterday’s fundraising lunch was backed by Sourcedining and a range of other Border businesses.
Read about the two young chefs and what it takes to make it in the food game in this Saturday’s Pulse in The Border Mail.
