News Archive

"Sake seared ocean trout fillet, wattle seed pan-fried veal sweetbreads, celeriac and porcini silken, soft cooked quail's egg, shimeji mushrooms and micro leaves" ... and that was just the entrée.

It takes almost as long these days to read and digest a menu as it does to eat the dish described.

But that dish, along with a main course and a dessert, was a winner for the University Club. Executive chef Costa Simatos and his team won a High Silver Medal at the recent Pacific Rims Continental ‘hot kitchen' competition, WA Oceanafest 2013, known as The Restaurant of Champions.

The week before the finals, in which the Club team had to cook an original three course meal for 80 people, about 30 UWA staff were treated to a practise run.

They were served the Club kitchen's best in a private dining room, and asked to score various aspects of the food and presentation.

During the competition, the chefs had to cook under the eyes of the judges in a pop-up kitchen where they had no experience of the ovens or other equipment.  They were allowed to do up to 20 per cent of their preparation before the day, for example, making custards or sauces and preparing vegetables.

It wasn't all about how the food tasted and looked. The team was judged on the presentation of the chefs, their skills and their methods of preparation.

The food was judged on presentation, balance, taste, texture and temperature.

The Club team scored 89 out of a possible 100 marks, coming second to the Australian National Culinary Team.  Also competing were teams from around Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and Germany.

Costa spoke to the staff after they had eaten and scored the team's efforts. He said there were some constraints on their choice of menu.

"We had to use sweetbreads (the thymus gland of a lamb) so we poached it in stock, then pan-fried it in wattle seed and brown sugar. It's quite difficult to successfully poach a tiny quail egg, so we have had this on the menu for the past four weeks so we can all practise.

"For the main course, we had to use a secondary cut of beef or lamb and we chose lamb."

The main course was lamb done two ways: a slow roasted loin, wrapped around with pulled braised shoulder. With the lamb, the chefs served ricotta and mint tortellini, pea puree, baby carrots, jus and parmesan foam.

The dessert was a South African-inspired dish: gingered malva pudding with coconut ice-cream, molasses crumble, pineapple and chilli compote and a sesame seed biscuit.

University Club manager, Gary Ellis, is a former chef, who did most of his work in big hotels and clubs in South Africa.

He said that, while he was delighted with the results of the competition, it was important for the young chefs to be involved in such events because they learned so much from the other professionals.