This year the Young Chefs Lunch will feature Aubergine’s own Sun Hwa Jang; Barry Burger from new favourite, Pilot; innovative South East Asian restaurant, XO’s Noora Heiska; and Eddie Tsai from fine dining stalwart, The Boathouse.

“It’s a huge developmental step for a chef to put themselves up for critique,” Willis says.

“They’ll each bring their own style. It’s hoped that the menu will be cohesive but that’s not really the point and they don’t know each other or cook together so it is just luck if it does.

“I hope we see diversity in the dishes they put out as I’d like to see them take some risks and not play it safe, but push themselves creatively to step away from what is expected.”

Burger has only been working in the industry for three years. The 26-year-old moved to Australia from The Netherlands and realised he had an opportunity to reinvent himself.

“I’d always been interested in food so I thought why not give being a chef a good crack.”

He’s made his mark at Eighty-Six, moving with Gus Armstrong when he took over Ainslie’s Pulp Kitchen. From there he went to Bar Rochford and worked with Louis Couttopes and when Pilot opened in 2018 he went back to Ainslie working under Malcolm Hanslow.

“Pilot is great,” he says.

“It's a very young crew in the restaurant so there's a good atmosphere and it’s a great place for me to be developing my own style. I know I’m still learning, I’m still inspired by other people and that’s why this lunch will be a great opportunity to work with Ben.”

Willis says it’s important to mentor young chefs, and he names Andy Turner, who was the head chef at Bennelong when he worked there from 1998 to 2001 as someone who put him on the path to becoming the chef he is now.

“I had never done much in the way of brigade-style, big-ticket dining and I had just moved to Sydney from Canberra so it was a huge environment shock on so many levels,” Willis says.

“I was a qualified chef but in a way that I had still had so much to learn. I had to work really hard to get on top of it all and I struggled a bit but he was really good at teaching and putting up with me and he could probably see I was keen to learn.”

He said the key for young chefs is to find a place to work that offers something that they would like to learn and stick with it.

“Young chefs also need to push themselves to continue to learn and do better every day and take responsibility for their own education and develop skills that they aren’t getting from their employer.

“Some people think that you need to work in fine dining establishments to be a great chef. You can be the best pizza chef, the best burger chef, whatever it is as long as you want to be there and care about what the customers are coming to see you for and you will become well known for that.

“I started my career cooking deep-fried food at a club but I loved it and learnt so much from it and I use some of those skills regularly in my businesses.”

Heiska knew she wanted to get into the industry in her teens. Growing up in Finland, she helped out an aunt who owned a restaurant for work experience.

“It was pretty much just cleaning and washing dishes, maybe a little prep, but I really enjoyed the environment of the kitchen,” she says.

The 23-year-old moved to Australia three years ago, classically trained in French cuisine, XO is her first Asian experience and she’s loving the opportunity to work with different produce, styles and technique.

“My family were all good cooks and I've grown up thinking good cooking comes from respecting the ingredient, getting the most out of it, using it in a way so its best qualities are highlighted,” she says.

“I also like using the ingredients that people might have a prejudice about, different cuts of meat, pieces of the fish that might be neglected, things like this are always very interesting to work with.”

While Jang will feel at home in her regular kitchen she's going outside her comfort zone looking after dessert.

"I'm more savoury than sweet," she says. "The challenge will be incorporating Korean flavours into dessert. I like to use unusual ingredients such as miso, sake lees and black garlic."

Jang, 32, grew up in South Korea, learning cooking from her mother. At 16  she went to cooking school "and with that, a whole new world had opened up for me, 16 years later I am still passionate about food as my career".

She moved to Australia in 2008 and worked at Etch by Becasse, with Justin North, before moving to Canberra in 2014 to Aubergine.

Young Chefs Lunch presented by Citi, Sunday, March 17, 12.30-3pm. At Aubergine, $150pp includes four-course lunch with matched wines.

For a full list of Goodfood Month highlight events head to goodfoodmonth.com/canberra