Taking on the World!!
Joseph Clarke is no stranger to the rigours and demands required to be successful in the furnace of the competitive culinary arena. This young chef demonstrates skills and composure that belies his age (21) He currently is one of New Zealand’s most prolific young culinary warriors and has the Silverware and Gold medals to back up his prowess in the culinary arena. Early on in his career he held the Southern Lights Commis Chef of the Year, The CPIT South Island Commis Chef of the Year and The New Zealand Commis Chef of the Year titles, these all won in back to back competitions during the 2007 New Zealand Salon season and in May 2008 he won Silver in the prestigious Hans Bueschkens World Junior Chefs Challenge Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Currently working at world renowned Blanket Bay Lodge alongside ‘Seasoned’ culinary competitor, Executive Chef, Mark Sycamore, a previous winner of The New Zealand Chef of the Year competition; and currently preparing to represent the New Zealand Chefs Association in the Pacific Regional Final of the World Association of Chefs Societies Global Chefs Challenge; Joseph is in good company as he prepares to step back into the furnace of international culinary competition.
At the recent Wellington Culinary Fare Joseph fought off strong competition from 7 other talented young professional New Zealand Chefs to win the Silver Fern Farms NZ National Final of the WACS 2010 Hans Bueschkens Junior Chefs Challenge. Joseph will once again represent The New Zealand Chefs Association (NZCA) at next year’s Hans Bueschkens World Junior Chefs Challenge being held at the CasaPiedra Events Center as part of the 2010 World Association of Chefs Societies (WACS) bi-annual Congress being held from Jan 24th – 28th in Santiago, Chile.
NZCA Vice-President and Culinary Team Business Manager Gary Miller said “the competition in Wellington was strong, 8 very focused and determined young professional chefs battled throughout the weekend to earn the right to represent their association and country at the highest level of competition there is for individual young chefs. “Not only did we (NZCA) find our candidate but we also found a wealth of emerging young professional talent from around the country that we can offer other opportunities too in the future”.
At the Wellington Culinary Fare the competitors had to compete in two competitions, The Akaroa Salmon Hot Entrée Presented Cold, a static showpiece event and then on Sunday afternoon they competed in the Nestle Professional Live Main Course and Dessert Class, where they had to prepare a main course and dessert from scratch for 6 covers in two hours, utilising products from Silver Fern Farms and Nestle Professional. They were judged on their kitchen skills, workflow, set up and preparation, then they were judged on presentation, taste, texture and flavours of their dishes. Their combined results from the two days were then added together with Joseph coming out on top.
Joseph will now prepare to pit his culinary skills against other young chefs from around the world during the World Congress. He will have to prepare a 3 course meal for 8 people from a mystery box of ingredients that he will get to study for one hour the day before the cook-off. During that time he will have to study the ingredients and then design his menu and present to the judges his written recipes and methods.
On the day of the competition he will have 3.5 hours to cook and prepare his menu and then he will serve his three courses, Entrée, Main and Dessert at times pre-determined by the chief judge on the day of the competition.
Gary says of Joseph, “I am looking forward to working with Joseph once again to help him prepare for the Hans Bueschkens competition, Joseph knows what is required to compete at this level and with only seven months to go before the competition; having previously competed in Dubai, our preparations will pick up where we left off in 2008”.
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