Back for its third consecutive year, the IHHC Culinary Competition was once again a centrepiece of our National Conference. Held for the first time on the Conference’s opening night, the competition attracted a strong turnout of delegates keen to see first hand our four finalist teams battling out it in the high-pressure cookoff.

Open to anyone regularly employed within health and aged care, the finalists were selected based on the originality/innovation shown in their entry recipe, its applicability to the healthcare foodservice environment, use of colour and texture and overall presentation.

The four teams each had 30 minutes’ preparation time prior to the cook-off to undertake mise en place, then 45 minutes to prepare five portions of a recipe using the nominated market basket ingredients and other local produce. Each team was started off at 10 minute intervals, to give the judges time to assess each dish as soon as it was plated.

The raw food cost for each finished plate was not to exceed $7.50 and each dish was required to conform to a nutritional composition of maximum 3000kJ, with less than 23g fat (maximum of 30 per cent of total kJ) and less than 750mg sodium. To this end a nutritional analysis signed off by an accredited practising dietitian (APD) was required with each recipe entry.

“The competition is designed to provide exposure for chefs who don’t normally get exposure for their cooking skills and give them an opportunity to have their skills measured against their peers,” says Culinary Competition organiser Liam O’Toole. “It’s a way of showcasing the talent of those workers who turn up day in, day out to sweat and work their butts off providing quality food while adhering to all the nutritional requirements. We want to demonstrate that it can be done well and to a budget, that these are meals you can serve anywhere.

“Not only do we want to acknowledge these unsung heroes of our industry, hopefully the competition will give them more exposure to senior staff members – typically it’s the senior managers who come along to our conferences, whereas those in the kitchen rarely get that opportunity.”

This year’s competition supporters were Unox, which provided the cooking equipment, Nutritious Cuisine and Bega Foodservice which provided ingredients, and Moffat Food Equipment which sponsored the David Terrill Trophy. As always, we extend our gratitude to all for their continuing support.

The judges for this year’s event were Mac Cousins, Corporate Chef and Business Development Manager at Rational Australia; Bianca Guthrie, Dietitian and Senior Project Officer at WA’s South Metropolitan Health Service; and former IHHC WA Branch chair Carey Bray, now Commissioning Food and Beverage Manager at VMCH.

Each judge awarded their points independently based on a 100 point system, with up to 15 points awarded for organisation, 40 points for culinary skills and 45 for taste and presentation.

We were thrilled to have Alistair McLeod from TV’s Ready Steady Cook and Off the Eaten Track return as Master of Ceremonies for his third year. Alistair performed with his usual aplomb, ensuring suspense levels were high during each stage of the cookoff as he led the audience in counting down each team’s finish. His engaging banter with contestants kept interest levels up throughout the event, tempered with witty asides and the occasional anecdote.

Each year the bar has been set higher with the quality of entries received and once again the judges were extremely impressed with our finalists’ efforts.

“The standard was amazing,” said Bianca Guthrie, with head judge Mac Cousins adding: “I think they all did really well, it was very very close – it came down to only one point between each finalist, so it was not easy for us to arrive at a winner.”

Announcing the winner, Liam O’Toole emphasised that all finalists had done an amazing job, adding: “This competition is about showcasing the massive amount of work that you all do that no one ever really gets to see. The level of food in year one was good, but the level this year is more than I ever expected I’d see, so congratulations to you all.”

The runner-up with 285 points out of a possible 300 was Brendan Host and Rajesh Pundir from STARS Brisbane for their dish of Asian style chicken with wasabi mash, oyster nushroom, pickled heirloom beetroot and edamame.

This year’s winning team, with 286 points, was Antonio Ferraioli and Paolo Bravi of Catholic Homes Castledare Village for their dish of Maryland Delight Stuffed Chicken.

“It’s a really great win, we enjoyed doing it and it’s wonderful to have this award,” Antonio said. As winners, Antonio and Paolo received the perpetual David Terrill Trophy and will hold it until next year’s competition when it will pass to our 2025 winners.

The other finalists for this year were David Martin and Harry Shen of St Vincent’s Care Melbourne, who prepared a dish of grilled rump cap in Nam Jim sauce with roasted peanuts, Shimiji mushroom, pickled fennel and green mango bite; and Tony Rutherford and Vivek Shetty from Bethanie Aged Care, with their dish of Harissa roast chicken with cauliflower puree and sage burnt butter.

We extend our congratulations to the winners and all finalists and our thanks to all who entered this year’s competition. As always, we expect the bar will be raised even higher next year – when the competition returns for its fourth iteration at the 42nd IHHC National Conference in Melbourne next October. Hope to see you all there!