THE annual Food Fight is one of the key culinary events held in the Hunter.
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The fundraiser, which is open to the public and organised by the Hunter Culinary Association, celebrates its 10th year when it returns on June 17, with four top chefs going up against each other in the kitchen at the Crowne Plaza in Pokolbin.
Each chef cooks one course of their choice for 300 guests at the luncheon. The chef with the dish voted most popular on the day will take out the Food Fight title.
In the kitchen this year is Thomas Boyd from Broke winery and restaurant Margan, Troy Crisante of Sydney's Quay Restaurant, George Mirosevich from Restaurant Mason in Newcastle, and Eilish Maloney who most recently worked as sous chef at Paddington restaurant, Saint Peter.
The four share a common bond, having all cooked alongside Newcastle-born chef Brett Graham at his two-Michelin-starred Ledbury restaurant in London, so diners can expect food of a high standard.
"The Food Fight is in our 10th year, so it's a celebratory year for us," Hunter Culinary Association chairman Gus Maher says.
"It's certainly our biggest event of the year. We expect around 300 people and it's one of our main fundraisers for the year that allows us to give money back to apprentices on scholarships."
Brett Graham has supported the work of the Hunter Culinary Association and its scholarship programs for many years, most notably the Brett Graham Scholarship.
It is the the HCA's major scholarship in conjunction with TAFE NSW that allows one chef each year the opportunity to travel to the UK to work alongside Graham at the Ledbury.
"Brett is a Novocastrian and a very proud one at that," Maher says.
"He is heavily emotionally invested in this scholarship because every year we fund a young chef to go over to London to work with Brett.
"What is very rewarding for me as chairman is when I look back at some of the Brett Graham scholars of the past. There is Chris Thornton from Restaurant Mason and his head chef George Mirosevich, who is one of our competitors this year, and there's Troy Rhoades-Brown, who now owns Muse Restaurant.
"It's really rewarding when you see these people who we have sent away and they have come back and now they're some of our best chefs."
Auctions run throughout the day at the Food Fight, with money raised put toward advancing the career development of aspiring chefs and apprentices.
Prizes up for auction this year include dinner for 10 at Brokenwood Wines catered by four leading chefs; a five-course degustation at Restaurant Mason; as well as an experience with Brett Graham to travel to meet him in London for lunch at The Ledbury, along with a visit to his home.
"It's a serious item and, again, an illustration to his commitment here that each year he's like, 'OK, what can I do to help?'," Maher says.
The gastronomic lunch also provides hands-on experience for young apprentices who work in the kitchen alongside the competing chefs to create the two entrees, mains and dessert, as well as for high school students who are pursuing a career in hospitality.
"We bring in TAFE apprentices from other restaurants who get the experience of working with these leading chefs in a restaurant catering for 300 people," Maher says.
"Then we also bring in other TAFE students and even students from Mount View High School are providing some of our wait staff this year, all under the tutelage both in the kitchen of these chefs and on the floor with the Crowne Plaza staff, who are very professional.
"Even behind the kitchen doors and on the floor we use it as a training ground."
Each course is matched with Hunter Valley wine from suppliers Margan, First Creek, Thomas Wines, Usher Tinkler and Peter Drayton Wines. Star chefs Matt Kemp, of Restaurant Balzac fame, and Colin Fassnidge, from TV show My Kitchen Rules, are returning to host the event.
"They were actually competing chefs in the early days before they were as famous as they are," Maher says.
"Their comment to me last year was 'We come back each year because we have a great belief in this. This could not happen in Sydney. You would not get all of these chefs in the one room all supporting each other and all supporting the industry'.
"They both come back every year and they are the nicest loose canons I've ever met. We give them a run sheet and I try to prompt them from the sides, but at the end of the day they're just really good, fun guys that get into the spirit of the day. They do live crosses from the kitchen, so they'll go out and talk to the chefs when they're in the middle of the cooking. It's a really fun day."
