As part of our Meet The Chef series we caught up with National Press Club chef, Georgia Harrison, and her team mate Amanda Polsen who have won the 2015 National Golden Chef’s Hat Award. The girls achieved first place in the competition receiving Gold with Distinction – a competition first. As part of the prize the young chefs will fly to South Africa to complete work experience with a multi-award winning chef and experience a once-in-a-lifetime Food Safari.
OutInCanberra caught up with Georgia to congratulate her on the win and to chat about her passion for food, family and all things culinary.
Where does your passion for food come from?
I’ve grown up surrounded by food. My family are all foodies so I grew up running around the kitchen with my mum and grandma cooking. To me, food is about bringing family and friends together. It has always been second nature to me that food and love go together.
Ever since I was little I’ve always wanted to cook and be a chef, my career is driven by an inherent passion and a love for food, tasting and being in the kitchen.
Tell us about your competition partner Amanda Polsen.
Before starting at the National Press Club, I worked at the Hyatt Hotel Canberra for five years and met Amanda. As young chefs at the hotel we were motivated to compete in the 2014 National Golden Chef’s Hat Award by our Head Chef at the time. It wasn’t something that we had considered before, but we signed up and won regionals and managed to place second in the national competition.
The experience of meeting all these inspirational people in the industry and other young chefs with such advanced culinary skills was a really eye opening experience. After competing last year, we really wanted to push ourselves to improve in this year’s competition.
What was the winning dish?
We had to cook three courses, but I really think the winning dish was our dessert. We made a chocolate mousse sphere with a liquid caramel port centre. The sphere was coated with a mirror glaze and was accompanied by pistachio crumb, pistachio semifreddo, port gel, raspberry liquid spheres and mini macaroons and chocolate décor.
We had three-and-a-half hours – including plating – to get the dishes up, so there it was very much a push to the end.
How many practice runs did you have in the lead up to the comp?
This year was very hard because Amanda and I work in different places and have very different schedules. However, our chefs, Daren Tetley, Executive Chef at the National Press Club and Executive Chef Nitin Kumar at the Hyatt Hotel Canberra, were very understanding and supportive, so we would both love to thank them very much!
Who is your idol chef?
This is a hard question to answer because everyone thinks celebrity chefs, but honestly I’m not a big fan of TV celebrity chefs and I don’t watch a lot of shows like MasterChef.
However, if I did have to pick I would have to say that Heston Blumenthal is one of my favourites. Heston takes food to another level, he doesn’t just make an experience out of food, it’s everything! The entire ambiance: the smell, the memory, the taste, the feel, the texture, everything is incorporated and I think that is so important when you experience food.
What is your signature dish?
I don’t have just one thing that I’ve always cooked. I love cooking for friends and family, just that gesture and experience of cooking for the people you love is more rewarding then anything to me.
When do you head off to South Africa?
We leave in March next year, but the entire trip has not been finalised yet. So far we know that we will be spending the first five days doing some work experience with chef David Higgs, who is an amazing chef at a resort there. The rest of our time there will be spent watching the South African version of the Nestle Golden Chef’s Hat competition and we will also be going on our Food Safari.
What is your food dream?
The two things that I am passionate about in life are food and writing. So I want to combine those two things to one day become a food critic or a food journalist in the future. Right now, while I’m young, fit and active I want to focus on being the best chef I can be.
