General News
29 May, 2022
Cairns Local In Finals Of The World Food Championships Australia
BORN and raised in Clifton Beach, chef and mum of two, Laura Burton, will be competing this weekend in Sydney in the World Food Championships Australia (WFCA) finals for the best burger category.
Laura discovered her passion for food from a young age. As a daughter of parents who worked late nights, she got used to cooking dinner for the family at the age of eight.
In her teenage years, Laura worked for her parents’ takeaway fish and chips restaurant, where tradies praised her for her delicious fish burgers.
At age 17, she started her career in the food industry with her apprenticeship and worked at high end and fine dining restaurants.
Nowadays, Laura runs a cooking school for children with special needs called Yummy Mummy Cooking School.
Laura joined the WFCA eight months ago with the perfect fish burger recipe.
“I logged my signature recipe, the beer-battered barramundi burger,” Laura said.
“That was instantly put in the top 10 in the burger category.
“Then we had a zoom session where we had to cook our signature dish live before a Le Cordon Bleu chef.
“After judging, it came back that I was in the top five for the Sydney WFCA.”
Laura feels incredibly proud to be representing FNQ in the WFCA.
“I’m really happy to be representing the Far North region,” she said.
“And the ingredients that go into my dish are all sourced from the Far North.
“The beer batter I’m using is from Great Northern Beer; the fish I’m using is wild-caught barramundi from the Far North region.
“And the second dish I’ll be making uses meat from the best butchery that I know of, Clifton Beach Butchery.”
Although it was unexpected for Laura to get to the finals, she aims to win and has plans for her title.
“I’ll definitely be thinking about moving into making burgers as a career,” she said.
“I did it for so long, and I was very good at it, so I think this is a sign that I should keep doing it.”
Laura will travel to Sydney today and compete on Sunday, May 29.
The WFCA will be a three-day competition in Sydney from May 27 to 29 and Melbourne from July 8 to 10, where six winners will get to compete for the 2022 World Food Champion title in Dallas, Texas.
Foodies who want to observe the competition and experience the WFCA can purchase tickets and find more information at: https://bit.ly/3NE6K2C
