The Murray Mallee LLEN was pleased to welcome back the Murray River Culinary Challenge for 2024!

The Murray River Culinary Challenge is an invitational event for regional schools that border the Murray River. Schools from both NSW and Victoria are encouraged to participate. The challenge is considered a major annual event for schools and is recognised as a prestigious event by students, trainers, teachers, school principals, chefs and hospitality establishments.

Kerang Technical High School, Swan Hill College and St Mary MacKillop College had their School Level Competition where 1st Year VET Hospitality students cooked 2 meals for judging including a main meal, and a dessert.

A big congratulations to the winners on the day from each secondary school who went on to compete in the Regional Competition in a team representing their school!

The Murray Mallee LLEN was very excited to facilitate the Murray River Culinary Challenge Regional Final for 2024!

The Regional Final was made up of 6 VET Hospitality students from our local secondary schools, Kerang Technical High School, Swan Hill College and St Mary MacKillop College, who cooked 2 meals for judging including a main meal and a dessert.

A big congratulations to the winners of the day Mawa Abitama and Grace Gibson from St Mary MacKillop College. They went on to compete in the MRCC Grand Final in Echuca against the winners from secondary school students from the Shepparton region and the Echuca region.

Our School To Work Coordinator Kerryn and our Projects Officer Mikayla travelled over to the Bendigo TAFE Echuca Campus with Grace and Mawa from St Mary MacKillop College for the 2024 Murray River Culinary Challenge Grand Final!

The Grand Final was made up of 6 VET Hospitality students from secondary schools including St Mary MacKillop College, Echuca College, St Anne’s College and Shepparton ACE Secondary College who cooked 3 meals for judging including an entree, a main meal and a dessert.

Murray Mallee LLEN would like to congratulate our local VET Hospitality students Grace and Mawa for winning the Murray River Culinary Challenge 2024 Grand Final!

We would also like to commend them on their efforts throughout the challenge which led them to compete in this amazing culinary opportunity and just mention how fantastic they did on the day! Their work ethic, teamwork and final presentation of dishes were spoken about very highly on the day and we couldn’t be more proud!

Congratulations to the VET Hospitality students from Echuca College, St Anne’s College and Shepparton ACE Secondary College on their efforts throughout the competition.

Thank you to Also, thanks to Mandy McCallum, Melissa Brooks and Jennifer Salvo from St Mary MacKillop College, Kylie Gardner and Sharee Evans from Swan Hill College, and Julie Pearce and Dean Rogers from Kerang Technical High School for being a big part of this opportunity for their VET Hospitality students.

A special thank you to our Murray Mallee Region judges over the course of the challenge including Rebecca Hart from Boo’s Place cafe & provedore, Ryan Box from The Orange Door Catering, Bianca Lowe from Swan Hill District Health, Lisa Bartalotta from Logan Street Corner Store, Chris Porter from The Port Swan Hill and Caitlan Sutterby from The Exchange Hotel, Kerang.

We would like to acknowledge and thank the Murray River Culinary Challenge sponsors Cobram Estate with their Olive Oil and Murray River Salt with their Pink Salt Flakes.

The 2024 Murray River Culinary Challenge is proudly brought to you by Murray Mallee LLEN, Campaspe Cohuna LLEN, Goulburn Murray LLEN, Moama Bowling Club, Cobram Estate and Murray River Salt.