Mona Vale chef, John McFadden, has been crowned World Food Champion.

With decades of experience as Executive Chef, and Ambassador of Squizify, an organisation that promotes food safety for hospitality businesses, John has rightly been awarded the World Food Champion at the World Food Championships in Dallas, Texas.

‘It was an opportunity for me to benchmark myself where I am currently in my career against the rest of the world,’ explains chef John. ‘So I thought I’d give it a shot. I had everything to gain.’

This win comes after his victory as World Seafood Champion in Dallas, Texas November of 2022. ‘I won the Seafood Championships last year. I was a Category Champion, so I then competed against the other nine category champions for the overall championship… After Dallas, I thought I’d finish what I’d started.’

These other categories included Bacon World Champion, World Barbecue Champion, World Burger Champion, World Dessert Champion, World Rice and Noodle Champion, World Sandwich Champion, World Soup Champion, World Steak Champion, and World Vegetarian Champion.

The World Food Championships involved two themed elimination challenges. After the first challenge, John proceeded through to the top five, and met with Chef Rafael Rios at YeYo’s Restaurant. ‘[Rafael Rios] presented the five winners a dish that we had to taste and recreate, with no recipe.’

For final challenge, which awarded John his treasured title, the contestants had to cook courses’ three and four from a five-course tasting menu, equating to ten dishes in sixty minutes. ‘I’ve been a chef for just over 30 years. This was my first international completion. And I walked home with the World Title.’

Along with the title of World Food Champion for 2022, John received a prize of 100,000 US dollars, around 150,000 in Australia currency. To make John’s victory sweeter, he competed on his own, while the other category champions were in teams. ‘I was competing against teams of three, so to do it solo was even more rewarding,’ says John.