New website for ACF now online

The Australian Culinary Federation has launched a new website www.austculinary.com.au which went live on 21 September. Through this we have introduced our new educational and professional courses which have been funded by one of our new principal partners, Stuart Alexander (Tabasco) and powered by Learning Vault.

In the ACF classroom we have a suite of courses and micro-credentials across five categories:

•  Australian Certified Chef Program - Executive Pastry Chef, Pastry Chef, Chef de Cuisine and Certified Pastry Chef and Culinary Educator.

Micro-credentials:

• Professional Cookery – upskilling your culinary knowledge

• Hospitality - developing skills across multiple areas

• Leadership - tangible, recognised proof of your demonstrated ability to empower, motivate, inspire, and drive results

• Wellbeing – explore how to look after yourself and others

These are available to anyone to access but are discounted for ACF members - Young Chefs $35, members $45, and Non-Members $99. These are short high impact courses that focus on a particular skill or area of interest, at a time that suits a busy hospitality professional.

We have also listened to feedback from our members and launched an ACF Classified page to advertise job vacancies, items for sale, services and products. There is a new member’s page through which several member benefits can be assessed. We are delighted also to welcome Club Chef as an affiliate of ACF and the preferred supplier of ACF branded merchandise. Club Chef will provide members with a series of jackets embroidered with the new ACF and World Chefs’ logo and other benefits for our members.

October is a special month for all chefs with International Chefs Day on 20 October. To celebrate this and our chefs during these unprecedented times, we organised several events across Australia throughout the month including online masterclasses such as Rare Medium with Sam Burke, and breakfasts and dinners in South Australia, Northern Territory, Western Australia, Tasmania and Queensland.

Another exciting announcement in celebration of International Chefs Day and to celebrate and acknowledge Krio Krush’s fifteen-year anniversary of valued sponsorship and ongoing support of the ACF: Krio Krush is sponsoring one hundred professional chef 12-month memberships for the month of October for the first signups across Australia. 

Krio Krush is a longstanding partner and friend of the ACF and their ongoing support over the years through sponsorship, support, supplying product and providing our chefs with educational opportunities is greatly valued.  

In a first for Australia, and in acknowledgement of World Mental Health Day (10 October), our Australian Young Chefs and WACS Young Chefs Development Committee came together to deliver a global webinar in partnership with PROfound leadership titled ‘Mindset Moments: Connecting with your inner CEO’ which was held on 6 October.

As we all know, our foodservice trade shows are postponed, as are a lot of our competitions, but Nestlé Golden Chef’s Hat Award National final will be held in November. The talent that has been displayed across the regions has been outstanding and we are really looking forward to seeing these young chefs going head to head.

A number of young chefs across Australia are also entering FHC China International Culinary Arts Young Chefs Online Competition and we wish them luck.

I trust you all had a happy International Chefs Day and hope to see you at one of our many upcoming events.