Best Bocuse d'Or Result for Australia

Brisbane-based chef Shannon Kellam has placed 12th from 24 countries in the 2015 world finals of the Bocuse d'Or. This is equal to the best position ever attained by an Australian candidate.

Shannon Kellam being announced as Australian representative (Photo : Bocuse d’Or)

This impressive result is the product of two years intensive training for the world's most prestigious yet gruelling culinary competition, which took place from the 27th – 28th January in Lyon, France.

"Competing for my country and placing 12th was an honour," Kellam said. "The work, not only by me, but also my commis Tara and the support team behind us has paid off and I'm proud of what we accomplished in Lyon this year."

Chef Kellam was supported by commis chef Tara Bain, who was nominated for 'best commis' on day one of the competition.

Tara is making her mark as a young chef, having won the Nestlé Golden Chef's Hat Award last year. A career springboard, this win put her on the radar of the Australian selection committee and resulted in her being nominated to be Team Australia's commis chef at the 2015 Bocuse d'Or.

On the back of her recent successes, nationally in the Nestlé Golden Chef's Hat and globally in the Bocuse d'Or, she's also been offered to work a 7 month season at former Bocuse d'Or world champion Serge Vieira's 2 Michelin starred restaurant later this year.

The Bocuse d'Or competition requires candidates to prepare two dishes for the judges – one meat platter and a fish dish. In 2015 the mandatory ingredients were guinea fowl (pintade) and trout.

Kellam prepared an Australian barbecue marinaded pintade breast and compressed thigh, using native ingredients such as finger limes, banksia, acacia wattle seed and pink lily pepper, to highlight the nation's contrasting flavours and geographic regions. His brown trout fario was improvised on the day using a secret ingredient announced that morning – celery.

First, second and third places went to Norway, USA and Sweden respectively. 12th place for an Australian candidate was last obtained by Luke Croston in 2007.

Source :    Gilly Ings   3rd February 2015