What I wouldn’t give to be in Melbourne right now; snacking on cheese and prosciutto in Federation Square watching a live stream of the World’s 50 Best awards as they are happening. It is the second awards show to happen outside of London in its 15 year history and tonight is the first official public screening of the event.
Knowing I couldn’t be in Melbourne tonight, I did the next best thing. I attended the #worlds50best talk in Sydney last weekend. Like a true fan girl, I was on the Sydney Opera House website as soon as the tickets went for sale. For me the panel was star studded with Massimo Bottura (Osteria Francescana), Brett Graham (The Ledbury), Dominique Crenn (Atelier Crenn) and local chef Peter Gilmore (Quay and Bennelong) with Annabel Crabb as MC.
The hour talk went by so fast, covering how each chef started and talking about their experiences. I was the most excited to hear from Massimo but I ended up leaving as a true fan of Dominique Crenn, with her confidence and witty honest responses.
The Q&A segment saw an audience member ask ‘as a female, when did Dominique decide between career and family life?’ The room felt uncomfortable as he kept finishing almost every sentence with ‘no offence’, but her response was simple- he didn’t know anything about her life. In fact she does have kids, so do the other male chefs on stage. So why ask her specifically? She offered to have a drink with the man or go out dancing afterwards if he wanted to talk about it further in person but she invited him for now during a limited timed event about food to ask a different question. What a champion!
I’ll be closely watching the #worlds50best FB page and count my way down from #50-1 for 2017.
TALES OF A CONFECTIONIST 