Australian Culinary Federation National Office Inc.

The ACF National Office is the peak industry body representing Australian professional chefs, cooks, apprentices & culinary students. The National Presidium consists of chapters from every state & territory of Australia. Each Chapter is represented on the board by the president who has been selected by the members of each chapter. This board then elect a National President “Myself” and an executive.

The role of each Chapter is to run local industry educational & networking events through Workshops, Forums, dinners and Culinary Competitions by doing this they are enhancing and developing the skills of our trade.

Our head quarters which is now run from our very first dedicated ACF office space at 13 Strathalbyn street, Kew East in Victoria not only organises our national & international events & competitions also supports & funds these local programs by coordinating & communicating with the chapters & individual members at a national level on a high platform and giving Australian Chefs a voice domestically. We speak for chefs on the international stage as the Australian member of WACS World Association of Chefs Societies, in which I will speak about in future issues.

National and International Gold Medals, he has worked in Hatted Restaurants and trained in 5 Star Hotels. His proudest professional moments have been in the competition arena, competing for his country on many occasions and holding a position on the Australian National Culinary Team for 6 years and co-captained the 2008 Culinary Olympic Team Bio

Employed by the Federal Group for the last 11 years as Executive Chef at The Henry Jones Art Hotel and now Wrest Point Hotel and Casino over seeing a Brigade of 70, Andre prides himself on investing his time to train and mentor young chefs in his brigade through competition, on site training and education to become sought after chefs in our industry. Bio

Lachlan Bowtell is well-respected industry professional that started life as a chef with a long history is sales and marketing in the food industry.  Lachlan has held senior positions in the Australian retail sector and also spent 20+ years working with Meat and Livestock Australia here in Australia and also in the Middle East based in Bahrain and Dubai.  Bio

Secretary General Manager Deb Foreman

Heading up the culinary program at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu, Sydney Culinary Arts Institute for the past 6 years, Karen heads up a team of international chefs that have worked across the globe.  Bio

Having spent 35 years in the kitchen, working his way up from junior dishwasher at 14 to current, Martin has been lucky enough to work his way around the world, the UK, Austria, France, the US, Spain & now here in Australia. Bio

Hamish Robertson

Stephen Lunn is a well-known and widely respected chef with over 30 years’ experience in the industry.  After growing up in Western Australia, Stephen worked for a variety of restaurants throughout Australia and Europe. Bio

Patrick OBrien

Currently Executive chef at University House –this is the private club for academic staff at Melbourne University, in the grounds of the Parkville campus. It is part of an ever shrinking group of private clubs in Melbourne and an even smaller group of self run University staff clubs in Australia. Bio

Bruno attributes majority of his accomplishments to his Italian born mother and the invaluable training and experience received working by her side in their Italian restaurants. This has seen him win many accolades and awards over his 35 years in the kitchen. Bio

Glen Austin President 1998 - 2006, ACF Honorary Past President, Honorary Life Member WACS, ACF National Life Member, Continental Director WACS Pacific Region 2010 - 2014 

Peter Wright President 2005 - 2014, ACF National Life Member 2015, Victoria Life Member 2013, 

Past President Peter is recognised locally as one of Australia’s leading food service experts and internationally as a Global event specialist. Peter has been involved in many major food service projects and events over the past 29 years and has an unprecedented track record for providing the necessary business outcomes. He has organised catering at 3 Olympic games and 2 Commonwealth games in recent times to be considered as one of very few in the world with the insights for both planning and executing of cost effective meal delivery at the scope required at an Olympic event.

2005     Peter Howard      Craig Birchall     Michael Strautmanis     Ingo Schwarze     Rick Stephens     Paul Moore                                 George Hill          Martin Carlin     Kim Chilcott                    Glenn Austin        Hans Schings (Vale)

2008     Henri Leuzinger     Tom Shoots (Vale)     Rudi Scherer (Vale)

2010     Patrick OBrien        Manfred Hennig    John Miller OAM

2011     George Kincses (Vale)     Keith Byron (Vale)

2013     Juliet Aspden          Inge Walters

2015     Peter Wright            Jock Stewart           Peter Tischhauser

Paul Moore ACF Victoria Life Member  2003 ACF National Life Member 2005 WACS Honorary Life Member 2010