Illawarra TAFE Commercial Cookery students Levi McEwan Hyde and Erin Moore, won silver medals in the regional section of the Nestle Golden Chefs hat competition in Sydney.

The longest running culinary competition in Australia offers young chefs the opportunity to compete against their peers in order to benchmark their cooking skills.

The students practiced under the guidance of teacher David Arens.

Levi cooked the main meal which comprised a lamb cutlet with Middle Eastern rump including carrot puree, fondant potatoes, braised baby fennel, port jus and leek ash. Erin's citrus parfait with rhubarb, white chocolate and Greek yoghurt truffle, oat and almond crumble and grapefruit jellies complimented the meal.

"It took a few months of planning and experimenting to get it right," Levi told Merimbula's News Weekly.

Deirdre Jory, Head Teacher of Tourism and Hospitality was proud of the students' achievement at state level.

Erin and Levi will represent the Illawarra TAFE team competing against other TAFE Campuses in October.