Skills Institute

Thursday, 21 March 2013 - 2:29pm

Skills Institute and Henry Jones Art Hotel apprentice Daniel Garwood has worked his way up from being a kitchen hand to being an apprentice chef, and has just had his hard work pay off, coming third in a national competition.

The Fonterra Proud to be a Chef competition has launched the careers of high-profile chefs such as George Calombaris, of Masterchef Australia fame. Coming third out of 32 apprentices from Australia and New Zealand has made Daniel hungry for more.

Daniel started with Country Club Tasmania in Launceston through the highly successful Mise en Place, a collaborative program involving the Skills Institute, Tasmanian Polytechnic and the Federal Group.  The pre-apprenticeship program is designed to nuture promising new talent. He has just started the third year of his apprenticeship and moved to the Henry Jones early last year.

Daniel’s teacher Stuart Rees received entry forms for the Fonterra competition and thought Daniel had the potential to succeed, encouraging him to enter and writing him a reference. And succeed he did, wowing the judges with his lamb rump with pesto puree, parmesan fondant potato, mint jelly, garlic confit and smoked leek and roasted beetroot.