New cooking competition honours late NT culinary legend and showcases students’ skills

The Inaugural Ty Lee Culinary Challenge was held at the CDU Palmerston TAFE campus this week. The newly created challenge was designed to honour the late Ty Lee former culinary lecturer at CDU and to upskill CDU students to be competition ready.

Ty was a lecturer at CDU for 27 years prior to his retirement in 2018 and was a strong advocate for the culinary profession in the NT. He formed the Darwin Chefs Association to support both International and local students, which eventually became part of the Australian Chefs Association.

Having taught over 1,000 culinary students and worked as the Head Chef for the Governor in the NT, Mr Lee was an NT culinary legend.

Sadly Mr Lee passed away last year after a short battle with cancer.

Former CDU students and staff decided to create the cooking challenge in Mr Lee’s honour and to help support students to gain competition skills.

Culinary Arts and Hospitality Team Leader Jason Wilkes said former students who still work in the industry reached out and said they want to honour Ty’s memory and support current students.

“That was the kind of person Ty was, always looking at how he could support his students and strengthen the industry, so when his former students reached out, we got the idea to name a competition in his honour while supporting local students,” Mr Wilkes said.

“The event was such a success, it was amazing to see the level of skills our current students have and watch them under pressure, Ty would have loved it, he always loved a little friendly competition.”

The inaugural challenge to be held in Darwin each September, is based around individuals competing in three courses Entrée, Main, Dessert. This year’s sponsors Arafura Catering Equipment, Humpty Doo Barramundi and Meat Livestock Australia all donated the main component for each dish.