Cranbourne chef Pamela Dassen brought home the bacon with a gold medal win in the recent VicTAFE Cookery Challenge. By Alison Noonan
PAMELA Dassen has the Midas touch – everything this Cranbourne chef touches turns to gourmet gold.
The 22yearold Chisholm Institute of TAFE student and her fellow students whipped up a storm to claim gold in the recent VicTAFE Cookery Challenge against seven other Victorian teams.
Ms Dassen worked with three fellow Chisholm Dandenong students in the annual “mystery box” competition at Gordon Institute of TAFE in Geelong.
The eight TAFE teams had the challenge of preparing a threecourse meal for four people from a box of mystery ingredients within two hours, judged by Melbourne’s best chefs from the Savoy Plaza Hotel, Crown Casino and others.
Ms Dassen, an apprentice chef at Kelly’s Hotel Cranbourne, said the team had to call on their creative flair to turn their box of quail, pork fillets, seasonal vegetables, chicken mince, pears, apples, midori and rhubarb into something special.
“Due to the great training sessions that we had with our teachers, we were really confident when we opened the mystery box. We had trained with a wide variety of ingredients preparing practice mystery boxes so we were well prepared,” she said.
With the clock ticking, Ms Dassen said her team made an entrée of boneless quail with stuffing, beetroot semolina gnocchi and a sherry glaze, a main course of roast pork loin served with braised red cabbage, ratatouille and brandy jus and a dessert of apple and rhubarb semi freddo served with poached strawberry pannacotta and a midori and pear jelly.
“I like trying new things with different flavours but the competition was quite hard because we were competing against other groups who had done a lot more competitions than us.
“But it was great to do so well against other more experienced teams,” she said.
The competition capped off a big week for Ms Dassen, who graduated from her Certificate Three in Hospitality course.
“I’m also about to start a new job at a new restaurant in Karingal.
“I don’t know exactly where I want to end up but I hope to keep on cooking and learning more,” she said.
