A MARGARET River chef has gone the farthest of any woman competing in the Rare Medium Chef of the Year competition in Sydney.
Morries Anytime head chef Rosie Griffiths travelled to Sydney recently to compete in the prestigious competition, which has never been won be a female chef, and placed second overall.
She was one of 32 finalists from around the country who took part in the competition and advanced through to the grand final alongside three notable Australian chefs.
Grand final winner Matthew McCall was competing for the third year in a row. "It was certainly a pretty tough bunch of chefs to be competing against," Ms Griffiths said.
"In the grand final we had a mystery box of ingredients and there was a goat rack, a lamb rack and lamb kidneys and we had to use the racks in one dish and the kidneys in a separate dish.
"I was the only girl in the final and I could certainly feel the whole crowd watching me, I was nervous."I cut my finger in the first 10 minutes and had to tell myself to calm down."
Ms Griffiths said the judges rated elements of her dish higher than Mr McCall, but she lost points for having a messy preparation area, which she attributed to being clearly flustered.
She said the competition organisers had encouraged her to re-enter for next year's event in Melbourne.
Morries Anytime sous chef Nathan Mitchell also travelled to Sydney as one of the 32 finalists, though narrowly missed out on a spot in the grand final.
