Meet the finalists for Queensland Young Chef of the Year

The future of Queensland dining is in very good hands if the talent levels of the Brisbane Times 2017 Good Food Guide Young Chef of the Year finalists is anything to go by (so it's pretty safe to say that it is).

The Young of Chef of the Year award acknowledges the rising stars of Queensland kitchens. Skilled chefs with passion and drive. It is open to any chef under 30 who is not already in charge of a professional kitchen and judged by a panel of industry experts, lead by Aria head chef Ben Russell.

Applicants were required to submit an application answering a series of questions and attach a photograph and description of an original dish. Six finalists were chosen to cook their dish for the judges in a MasterChef-style tasting and undergo a more rigorous interview.

Judges were highly impressed with the calibre of entrants this year. It was an intelligent, focused, and creative field and excellent to see applicants representing regional Queensland too.

Punters will have the opportunity to experience the finalists' cooking at The Young Chefs' Dinner, a highlight of Brisbane Times Good Food Month presented by Citi.

The six-course dinner (including matched wine) will be hosted at Aria on July 13. Each chef will take on a course that best showcases their skills. You can visit brisbane.goodfoodmonth.com/youngchefsdinner for further details about the one-off collaborative event that shoudn't be missed.

And now, a round of applause please, for Queensland's Young Chef of the Year finalists.

Angus Baker, Esquire, Brisbane

24 year-old Gus Baker cut his teeth at the George and Dragon gastropub in the UK, before working the pans at Survey and Co, Gerard's Bistro and now Esquire. He has a big love for pasta making and would love to work with chef Massimo Bottura from Osteria Francescana, the current number one restaurant in the world. "I feel that he takes Italian food very seriously and reiterates that attitude throughout the kitchen," says Baker.

The chef says the book that has had the biggest influence on him is The French Laundry by American chef Thomas Keller. "It was my first proper fine-dining cookbook and helped inspire me to be more creative and see a world outside of what everyone else is doing. To be unique and create something from nothing."

Olivia Meli, Montrachet, Paddington

Meli is currently a star in the Montrachet kitchen, but has cooked all over the world in places such as Corsica, French Polynesia, Monaco and France (at the three Michelin-starred Flocons de Sel, no less).

She says a vivid food memory of her time in France was at a restaurant in Courchevel.

"The kitchen served me an impromptu dish of scallop carpaccio, green asparagus and caviar. The scallops were still pulsating. The asparagus, so green and crisp, and the caviar there to add the perfect amount of saltiness to otherwise unseasoned scallops. What made it so memorable was the simplicity and beauty of the dish. It was just perfect - a word I don't throw around lightly when food is concerned."

The 28-year old has a desire to develop her butchery skills over the next 12 months. "This art needs to make a big comeback to combat the negative connotations that meat eating has acquired," she says. "Eating animals sustainably is a possibility. We just need to remember how to not to waste them."

Meli, unfortunately, cannot make it to the Young Chefs' dinner on July 13 to showcase her cooking. (Aria has developed a dish for Meli's course instead.)

Martyn Ridings, The Wolfe, East Brisbane

Liverpool Football Club fan Martyn Ridings is sous chef at Paul McGivern's new(ish) venture, The Wolfe. He was previously junior sous chef at Stokehouse Melbourne and has also spent time on the pans at Lutece, Alchemy and abroad in France.

"My time in France was an amazing experience," he says. "Fine-tuned under such experienced chefs and foraging each morning for a bounty of fresh produce - the likes of which I had never seen - I gathered a real appreciation for what food was about and have strived for the best quality ever since."

Ridings says the Australian chef he aspires to work the most with is Mark Best. "His approach to food for me is completely unique and [he is] someone I have always admired."

Timothy West, Otto Ristorante, Brisbane

Since 2011, Tim West has been working in some of Australia's best kitchens. He is currently based at the just-open Otto, but has spent considerable time at Brisbane's three-hatted Esquire, Newcastle's two-hatted Subo, and the Noma Australia residence in Sydney.

"During service at Noma, I was called out to the pass by [chef] Rene Redzepi along with three other interns," says West. "He had a serious look on his face and we all thought we had done something wrong. He demanded that we get changed instantly and return to him. We come back and he tells us to wait outside, that he doesn't want to see us in the kitchen. The head waiter looks at us, smirks, at and tells us to head back inside for what turned out to be a dinner at Noma. It was so unexpected and so incredible."

It is West's goal to become a qualified artisan baker. He hopes to work with and learn from Australia's top bakers and pastry chefs and gain the experience needed to one day open his own establishment.

Mitchell White, Indulge Cafe, Bundaberg

Few venues celebrate local produce and work as closely with farmers as Bundy's Indulge Cafe, which took home the People's Choice Award in the 2016 Good Food Guide. Mitch White has a love of paddock (or sea) to plate cooking that comes from a fourth generation farming background and an unrelenting passion for all things from the river to the ocean in his local region. "I believe that we live in one of the most abundant, raw and prolific areas in Australia," says the chef.

White says one of the best dishes he has ever eaten wasn't cooked in a kitchen.

"In the full moonlight of the Burrum River, we were catching young squid and mud crabs. Within an hour we pulled up the boat and cooked them over coals on the riverbank. The sweetest thing you will ever put in your mouth apart from Elliot River baby prawns."

He hopes to one day own a restaurant or cafe supported by its own back door concept, working seasonally and breeding livestock.

Claudio Zannotti, Noosa Waterfront Restaurant & Bar, Noosaville

The Italian-born twenty-seven-year-old has been working in the hospitality industry from the age of 15. Zannotti currently holds the position of sous chef at Noosa Waterfront Restaurant & Bar and was previously on the pans at the highly respected, Michelin-starred Locanda Locatelli in London. He is also a certified sommelier.

The Italian chef Zannotti would most like to work with is Massimo Bottura ("I love his philosophy of combining art and food together to create unique dishes") while closer to home Peter Gilmore of three-hatted Quay restaurant inspires the young chef the most.

"I admire Peter Gilmore because of his passion for gardening and growing his own vegetables," says Zanotti. "He also works in partnership with small and artisan producers, assisting and enhancing the local economy."

"I want to be able to lead a career in which I am proud of what I have accomplished and to open my own restaurant where a farm-to-cooking code is applied daily."

The Brisbane Times 2017 Good Food Guide is available for $9.99 from participating newsagents and bookstores from July 19. Purchase includes free download of the new Good Food app, launching late 2016. Read all the latest reviews, get the scoop on scores and hats and book your favourite restaurants.