Australian "Black Hat" honoured

Industry stalwart George Hill last week received The Chairman’s Award for Special Achievement at the Foodservice Suppliers Association of Australia's 2010 Awards for Excellence. This award is presented to an individual or an organisation that has made an extraordinary contribution to the Australian Foodservice Industry over many years.

In thanking the association for this acknowledgement, George noted that his first desire to become a cook was at the age of eight having won a children’s fancy dress party while crossing the date line on a repatriation ship returning to England after World War II. “Winning that competition engendered a lifelong love with all things associated with the symbol of the chefs’ hat,” he said.

George is one of only two Australian "Black Hats", a life member of the Australian Culinary Federation, a pioneer member of the Les Toques Blanches and the winner of the National Association Foodservice Equipment Suppliers' Award for Excellence and Dedication as a Hospitality Educator. During his career he has been a chef, cookery teacher, owner/operator of a small 5-star and a hospitality industry consultant.  He has been in some way responsible for the training of some 28,000 people in cookery and hospitality programs, authored a number of books and videos and directed many Salon Culinaires.

George is currently the webmaster of the Australian Chefs website, Salonculinaire.com, which includes a professional chefs forum, virtual museum and a searchable database of over 500 chefs.

Through Salonculinaire.com he convened a chefs committee to develop the Australian Culinary Code of Practices for professional chefs and developed the online Certified Chefs program, which encourages professional chefs to move forward into a systematic process of assessment and continuous self development.