Dedicated to promoting comaradarie and the culinary education of chefs and apprentices

 

 

May

What is the World Association of Chefs Societies or W.A.C.S as we more commonly describe it ? It is by definition the global network of 72 nations chefs associations of which Australia is one small part. Its history is steeped in traditions with the infamous August Escoffier being the first honary president in 1928. During its long history only two congresses has ever been held in the pacific region, Melbourne in 1998 and New Zealand in 2006. During the next world congress being held this month in Dubai there will be another break of tradition with the prospects of a new presidium being elected. The running candidates are John Sloane from Singapore who currently represents Asia and Gissur Gudmundsson from Norway who represents North Europe. The significance of this election is that both candidates have strong ties with the Pacific region and more importantly to Australia which will benefit our Australian Culinary Federation both internationally and locally, in short it will bring the world of chefs to us. I think we are in for some exciting times ahead.

The candidates also offer new insights into the culinary world and will manage W.A.C.S with a new brush of modernism that will assist in the development of a world recognised chefs accreditation and qualifications system. This system will allow any chef to establish a level of achievement which will be recognised in whatever kitchen he or she chooses to work in. In addition the focus on the European and America will shift to our region flowing into a mass of opportunities for our chefs and cooks. For more information on W.A.C.S go to www.wacs2000.org/ and browse through a well constructed web site.

On the local front the junior chefs are getting all the press, the Nestle Golden Chefs Hat gets under way later this month with record number of entries expected so get in early and register your teams entry. George Hill is a man possessed with punctuality and timelines so don’t be late. Chefs aged up to 23 years are eligible. The event this year has been invigorated with additional support including MLA, Mirvac and Global-Pro. This years final will be held in Melbourne to coincide with fine foods in September and the winners will be off to the Culinary Olympics in October where we have both Senior and Junior teams competing in Erfurt Germany.

Australia currently holds the title as the secondary school world champions with a team from Canberra winning last years event in Taipei. This years international event will be held in the Gold Coast and is being hosted by the Queensland chapter of the ACF and supported by the GCIT faculty of hospitality and tourism and the Gold Coast City Council. The secondary school challenge is open to students 19 years of age and under and is growing strongly throughout the Asia Pacific countries. In an attempt to focus on encouraging young people to become chefs this is a fantastic initiative so please all get behind it. For more information please go to www.austculinary.com.au.

On a wise front, it seems that with the apparent truth on Global Warming our governments are finally putting plans together to confront the issue head on which is fantastic news, unfortunately this will flow on to hikes in power bills estimated to double over the next 2 to 3 years. The principle going forward as far as I can understand is that consumers will pay for the amount of carbon that is produced by the task at hand, in other words how much carbon is produced to deliver a cooked meal????. In the future we will have to trade our carbon emissions for greener fuels at a price. I am interested in any information that will help this issue so please feel free to email me peter@xtremechef.com.au

Culinary Regards

Peter Wright

P.S. I am not a political advocate, just heading that way!!!!!!!!!!