Jay Richardson of Sokyo restaurant in the Star Casino has stirred, chopped and grilled his way to second place and $2,000 in the Cultural Culinary Competition at the Northern Sydney Institute’s Asian Culinary Centre, Crows Nest Campus.
The Cultural Culinary Competition is an annual event hosted by The Korean Daily Hoju Dong-A newspaper and INCOEC (an international corporation specialising in the educational and cultural development of society).
It pitted 16 promising young chefs against each other to fight it out for a share of $8,000 and a two-day Tasmanian salmon farm tour.
Each competitor was required to serve up an entrée, main and dessert with an Asian fusion theme, with each course being assessed on practices, preparation, presentation and taste.
Jay’s precision and presentation wowed the judges, in particular his elaborate entrée of seared scallops and edamame puree with aka miso foam, proving to be exceptional.
“I really had to push myself to get everything done under the two-hour time limit and thankfully everything just came together,” said Jay.
“I did my training at the Northern Sydney Institute’s Ryde Campus in Commercial Cookery and Hospitality and those courses have prepared me to be work ready and to be calm under pressure, in both the kitchen and events like this.”
Ann Dooley, senior judge and teacher of commercial cookery at the Northern Sydney Institute said the dishes served up this year were of the highest calibre.
“We saw a marked improvement in the quality of the plates dished up this year. It was incredibly hard to separate the chefs,” said Ann.
“Jay really demonstrated his diverse abilities today and came up with three incredible dishes.”
Matthew Weller of Wildfire restaurant in Darling Harbour won the event and the $5,000 winning prize, with Bora Ahn of Galileo restaurant in the Langham Hotel, coming in third.