Impressive: Young Benalla chef Windi Juli Safitri has taken out a bronze medal in the Les Toques Blanches Awards for excellence. This is her second medal in only the second comepetiton she has entered. Turn to page 7 for more.
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Simon Ruppert
It was only on September 13 that the Ensign reported on Benalla’s Windi Juli Safitri winning a bronze medal in the Australian Fine Food Awards 2022.
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Just two weeks later she picked up another bronze in the highly contested Les Toques Blanches Awards for excellence, held on Tuesday, September 27.
The awards see top up and coming chefs from around Australia given a specific entree to prepare and a mystery box to create a main course from.
Contenders then create a dessert of their own creation.
‘’My teacher called me during my weekend off and asked if I had heard about this competition,’’ Windi said.
"So I registered and thought it was taking place next year, but when I double checked it was next week.
“I had just seven days days to prepare. I had to come up with my dessert which was a modern twist on a traditional Indonesian dish.
“I called it an Indonesian coconut cream.”
Cool under pressure: Windi Juli Safitri at the Les Toques Blanches Awards for excellence 2022.
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On top of coming up with the dessert, preparing the entree, and using some creativity to create a unique dish from the mystery box, Windi also had to write an essay for the competition.
“I was very nervous, the other entrants had some time to prepare, but I only had the seven days.”
Windi said the experience highlighted that she much prefers the cooking side to the writing.
“I was up against 14 other chefs from all over the country.
“There were chefs there from Crown in Melbourne and Sydney.
“I was scared as they have people behind them to help and I had to do it on my own.
“I wasn’t sure how it was judged. I didn’t know if they’d just eat it or if the look was important too.”
Tasty: Indonesian coconut cream by Benalla's Windi Juli Safitri.
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It turned out the scoring was based on a point system, and at the awards ceremony that evening Windi was in for some good news.
“I didn’t expect to win anything, but I was very proud to find out I had achieved a bronze medal.
“Thank you to the Golf Club and my teacher Leanne. And thank you to everybody in Benalla who has supported me.”
Although she said she plans to finish her training in Benalla, local people had better make the most of Windi and her contributions to the Golf Club menu.
At the event she was passed a card by a celebrity chef, who she chose not to name, who was keen for her to work with them at some point.
As her career progresses and the awards stack up she may well be poached by a top-end restaurant.
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