Five-star success for culinary staff

Kuttabul cooks and stewards with their awards.

By WOSTD Shakey Lake

Eight Kuttabul cooks and stewards performed well against more highly fancied opponents during the Sydney Culinary Challenge 2003 Restaurant of Champions competition held at Darling Harbour recently.

Stewards LS Rodney Tagg, AB Susannah Petersen, AB Michael Reinders and SMN Sonia LeonSepulveda received a Bronze Medal for their efforts.

The cooks, LS Nicole Dokter, AB Terri-lee Anthony, AB Melissa Webb and AB Allan Pascoe received a Merit Award.
The challenge was part of the Fine Food Australia Catering Trade Fair.

The Kuttabul teams triumphed over some exceptionally strong competition from within the hospitality industry.
They out-performed teams from many of Sydney’s five star hotels.

The overall winner of the Restaurant of Champions, that saw the results of both cooks and stewards combined, was Melbourne’s William Angliss School of Catering.

In May of this year, a culinary competition was conducted amongst the Defence bases in the eastern Sydney region.
The sailors from HMAS Kuttabul won the competition and received automatic entry to the “open” Restaurant of Champions competition.

The team of Navy cooks arrived at the competition venue at 6am to find a “bare kitchen.”
They spent the next hour unloading their food and utensils from their vehicles.

The foursome then had to prepare a three-course meal for 52 diners. The menu included grilled Coffin Bay scallops on a bed of watercress and avocado salad, lamb loin oriental and, hazelnut macaroon and strawberry layer.

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