Soren Lascelles and his Chocolate Brownies

On the evening of Monday 9 August, Soren Lascelles was declared the 2010 Australian Appetite for Excellence, Young Chef of the Year.

Sydney was also proud when Louise Tamayo was awarded The Young Waiter of the Year.

During the final round of judging, the young finalists spent five days on a great initiative, the Hunt & Gather Produce Tour (meeting artisan food producers of NSW).

At the beginning of the tour, each of the young chefs was given one key item of produce, then asked to collect other ingredients during the tour, to be presented in their dish at the ‘Hunt & Gather’ dinner at the Electrolux showroom. Soren Lascelles’ produce item was macadamias and his course was dessert.

As it so happened, I was honoured to not only be included as a guest at the dinner, but also I drew to ‘cook’ with (the eventual Young Chef winner) Soren on dessert. Always one to grab a recipe from my chef friends, here’s the Chocolate Brownie recipe that Soren was kind enough to scribble down for me while ‘we were’ (read he was) cooking that evening. (Not knowing that it was an interactive dinner and the guests had to cook, I was wearing my Prada heels. Not the best footwear for a commercial kitchen, though the shoes were admired on the evening by Appetite for Excellence co-founder Chef Luke Mangan.)

Soren’s Chocolate Macadamia Brownies

1. Melt
500g 70% chocolate (dark)
500g butter

2. Mix
410g sugar
350g eggs

3. Add 1 to 2 then whisk in 215g flour (plain) and pinch of salt. Bake at 170C.

When I congratulated Soren at the awards night, I realised there were no macadamias listed in his recipe. Beaming after his win, Soren added to just ”spinkle some on top”.

His win, I’m sure, will be more than a sprinkling to his cooking career.

Although additional tests were invented to separate the winner for the Young Restauranteur of the Year, that category ended in a tie between Thomas Moore of Grazing and Kim Coronica of Richmond Hill Cafe & Larder.

My thanks to domandheath.com for the photos. Photos were taken at the Electrolux Appetite for Excellence, Hunt & Gather Dinner Saturday 3 July 2010.