Final practise run at Ara for Global Chef competition

_{Pictured left to right coach Ara tutor Mark Sycamore and chefs Cameron Davies and Quinn Ojala.}

It’s 20 years since Southland’s Cameron Davies graduated with his cookery qualification from what is now Ara Institute of Canterbury. But last week he was back on campus cooking up a storm enroute to the prestigious Global Chef competition in Singapore. 

It was the final rehearsal for the Ara “dream team” made up of Davies, recent graduate Quinn Ojala and Ara tutor Mark Sycamore as coach.  They worked under competition conditions to prepare 12 portions of the set menu (four courses) twice over three days.  Each run through a seven-hour marathon effort.  

Now owner of the famed Fat Duck restaurant in Te Anau, it’s been a long haul for Davies and his team involving several rounds of qualifying, then test runs in training kitchens in Christchurch and Invercargill, spending hours getting to the point of perfection. 

"I’m excited. The final test runs have gone extremely well here at Ara. I’m privileged to represent New Zealand and now I can’t wait,” Davies said. 

The competition will see 16 international chefs cook four courses over seven hours with 20 judges constantly roaming by their benches, scrutinising their every move.  

Davies will be assisted by Ojala, an exceptional young chef currently working at Christchurch’s Inati restaurant and winner of Outstanding Emerging Chef at the recent Christchurch Hospitality awards. 

“I’m just incredibly excited. This will be an amazing experience on my chef’s journey,” Ojala said. 

Not even the added pressure of TVNZ’s Seven Sharp was able to put the team off their stride in the final cook.  

Sycamore, former NZ Chef of the Year is one of the very few New Zealanders to claim a spot in the famed Global Chef Challenge. He was impressed by what he saw in the Ara kitchen and said the team was ready for the pressure of international competition. 

"It can come down to tiny margins with mere points in it as 48 plates of food are prepared,” Sycamore said. “Just 60 percent of the marking is on food, forty percent of the mark is based on how they are in the kitchen, their set up, preparation, how they interact and their technique.” 

The competition menu is strictly set but Davies is getting as much “Kiwi” in there as he can including green lipped mussels, seaweed, New Zealand black garlic, mushrooms, clover honey, as well as Southland beetroot and hazelnuts. 

His own tutor, David Spice, who still wears a white coat at Ara, couldn’t resist keeping an eye on the final cook. Invited to dine at one of the rehearsals, Spice remembered Davies as a student “who had that drive to go a little bit further”.  

Singapore’s a long way from the Sheffield A&P show where Davies first entered competition cooking – winning awards with his grandmother’s jam recipes - but he says he’s ready for the international stage and grateful for his training and support from Ara. 

“I had amazing tutelage and amazing chefs around me when I was learning. Now having Quinn here alongside me and Mark in our team it almost feels like coming full circle,” Davies said. 

Twenty years since he honed his craft, Davies will be doing his all to taste success in Singapore on October 24.