Simplot Foodservice: Principal partner of the Australian Culinary Federation’s Australian Young Chefs

ACF National Youth Squad’s youngest member Courtney Short shares her story

Established by the Australian Culinary Federation, Australian Young Chefs provides an educational mentoring forum for the next generation of up and coming chefs and aims to promote friendship, culinary excellence, cultural understanding and humanitarianism not only in Australia but around the world.

Australian young chef COURTNEY SHORT hails from Perth and at just 18 years old is the youngest member of the Australian Culinary Federation’s National Youth Squad, which made its triumphant return from competing in Luxembourg just before Christmas, complete with Silver and Bronze Medals.

 In this interview Courtney not only shares with us the excitement of the comp but also what it’s like to have entered the industry at such a young age, her aspirations and goals for the future.

“My family have been my biggest support throughout my foodservice journey so far,” Courtney tells us, “and my mum and nan were my inspiration for getting into the industry. When I wasn’t cooking myself, I was always watching them in the kitchen – I knew cooking was something I loved.”

So when the opportunity came up to do a school-based apprenticeship, Courtney jumped at it. “A year 12 student at the time was completing their Certificate III in Commercial Cookery, which is how I heard about it,” Courtney recalls. “I started at the beginning of year 11, when I was 15 going on 16.” 

School-based apprenticeships provide the opportunity to develop skills and get paid while working towards secondary graduation and an industry recognised qualification. They consist of both off and on the job training, completed during school hours. Students attend a workplace one day a week, training college one day a week and spend three days at school.

Entering the world of professional competition

Courtney undertook her apprenticeship through Perth-based Group Training Organisation (GTO) Hospitality Group Training, and upon graduating Year 12 was placed with her host employer, five-star luxury hotel Pan Pacific Perth. “Hospitality Group training have been incredibly supportive,” she emphasises. “I’ve been able to continue my apprenticeship from school-based to full-time through them and the support they give and the knowledge they have of the industry is just incredible.”

She was thrilled to secure a position at the Pan Pacific, which she describes as “really amazing”: “I’m mainly working in Uma restaurant, which serves Peruvian style food, and The Stage which is a Spanish Tapas Bar. It’s given me the opportunity to familiarise myself with a whole different style of cooking and presentation, which has been a real eye-opener. At the same time we have banquets, room service and a bar so I’m getting the chance to learn about a lot of different aspects of foodservice. I’m working with nice people and we have a great head chef, so I feel very lucky to be here.”

Courtney’s industry training was also her entrée into the world of professional competition. “My first competition was Apprentice of the Year, which I found out about while at TAFE. I competed in that about two years ago – I wanted to find out what it would be like to have to prepare a set number of dishes within a strict time limit. You had to do two lots of entrée, main and dessert and I went into that first competition thinking to myself, ‘all I’m going to focus on is getting those six dishes up’, and found I really liked the challenge of it.”

Following that event, Courtney received an email early last year advising that applications were open for the ACF National Youth Squad, and she decided to apply. “I thought it would be a way to further develop my skills and work with like-minded people who have a love for cooking and food, and it would also be a chance to share my passion and knowledge with a wider community. Plus it would be a chance to travel – I’d never been overseas before until the trip to Luxembourg in November!”

Competing in Luxembourg

As the National Youth Squad is made up of young chefs from all around Australia, it took a while before the 2022 team could all get together in person. “All of us in Perth put on a dinner event to raise funds so we could fly the other members in and meet the whole team,” Courtney recalls. “We had previously done a couple of training sessions where we didn’t have everybody. But once we all flew to Sydney to compete at the Foodservice Australia tradeshow, we started to get a lot closer as a group.  

“Then when we were in Luxembourg we grew even closer, which was really nice. We had two different competitions there over two days, but we were away for 15 days in total, so we pretty much prepped to do the first one, competed, came back and then prepped again until we did the second day. It was pretty full on but great fun! In the first event which was the Restaurant competition we won a Silver medal and in the second which was Buffet style we got Bronze.”

The squad consisted of five women and two men, whose ages range between 18 and 23 with Courtney the youngest – “but we’re all pretty young,” she points out. Chefs Pat O’Brien and Peter Tischhauser acted as mentors, conducting training days in Perth and also chaperoning the team during their time in Europe. “It was just a fantastic experience and Pat and Peter were like coaches, they helped get the best out of us,” Courtney says. “I really admire them for their willingness to teach the younger generation of chefs coming through.”

Looking to the future, Courtney says she is committed to staying in the industry. “I just love it – it’s challenging at times but it’s always fun. There are so many different aspects to it – just before I got my apprenticeship I did a work placement at a little café close to where I live, and going from that to the Pan Pacific was a massive change! So I think the longer you’re in the industry, the more different styles you get to see and that variety is very interesting.

“When I do qualify as a chef I would love to travel overseas – maybe to work, but also just to experience the food because it’s so different. I’d like to explore different countries, cultures and cuisines and then long term I’d love to go down the road of fine dining. Those are my two main goals right now, but we’ll see what the future holds!”

If you’re an apprentice chef or know of a young chef who would be interested in joining Australian Young Chefs, you can find out more by contacting membership@austculinary.com.au

You can also join sign up to the Australian Young Chefs facebook page by clicking the link below