By CASEY NEILL
A SPRINGVALE apprentice chef has triumphed in the kitchen and the classroom.
Hoang Le won the Outstanding Apprentice Student award at the Holmesglen annual awards dinner on 21 March.
A $3000 cash prize recognised his hard work last year while studying a certificate III in hospitality (commercial cookery).
“I was pretty shocked,” he said.
“When I actually went up there, you’re supposed to have prepared a speech and I had nothing planned.
“I was just standing up there with a big smile on my face.”
The 25-year-old said he was up against tough competition.
“I want to thank my teachers for putting their time and effort into everything,” he said.
“I wouldn’t be where I am without Holmesglen.
“They’ve shaped my career.”
Mr Le also captained the successful Holmesglen team in the VIC-TAFE Cookery Challenge for two years running and took out last year’s Holmesglen Iron Apprentice Chef.
In January last year, Star News Group reported he’d be mixing it with Australia and New Zealand’s best young culinary talent in the Proud to be a Chef competition.
He was among 32 apprentices selected to take master classes at award-winning Melbourne restaurants, evaluated on their passion and commitment to food service as well as their goals, aspirations and an original recipe.
“I got to meet a lot of aspiring young chefs and a lot of mentors,” he said.
“It made me much more excited about doing what I was doing.”
Meeting people with similar attitudes to his own refuelled Mr Le’s drive.
“It reinvigorated me and made me push myself even harder,” he said.
He’s spent time in the Chateau Yering kitchen in the Yarra Valley and at Sebastian’s Food and Wine in Hampton, and is now working at Vietnamese restaurant Dandelion in Elwood.
“But I promised myself when I started my apprenticeship that I was going to travel,” he said.
So in six weeks he’s leaving for London to expand his horizons and push his boundaries.
He plans to holiday for a month before finding a job in a kitchen and has dreams of one day opening his own restaurant.
Mr Le has had an interest in cooking from a young age and a “special connection with food” but took his time to follow a career in his passion.
He worked as a labourer for more than three years after finishing high school before taking a month off to evaluate what he wanted to do with his life.
“I finally decided to be true to myself,” he said.
He moved back home and took up a chef apprenticeship at his local TAB with support from his family.
“The power of food is amazing,” he said.
