Brisbane Chef Dan Arnold to represent Australia at the Bocuse d’Or cooking competition

Celebrated Brisbane chef Dan Arnold has been announced as Australia’s representative at the Bocuse d’Or Asia Pacific in China this September.

The biennial Bocuse d’Or, established in France in 1987 by influential chef Paul Bocuse, is generally regarded as the world’s most prestigious cooking competition, with the top five competitors from the Asia Pacific round going on to represent their respective countries at the finals in Lyon, France in January.

Arnold previously won bronze at the Bocuse d’Or Asia Pacific in 2016, before going on to compete in the grand final in 2017. On that occasion he placed eighth – the highest ranking to date of any Australian chef at the competition.

“This is the competition,” Arnold says. “It’s considered the Olympics of cooking and the only truly international competition where chefs represent their country as well. There is an actual Culinary Olympics, but it doesn’t have the recognition that the Bocuse does.

“Paul Bocuse started the competition wanting to share French gastronomy with the world. Nowadays, there are more than 70 countries that start out at the beginning of the process, and end with 24 in the finals.”

Arnold was intending to next represent Australia at the 2027 competition, until he swapped years with Paul Golding, head chef at Barn & Co on the Mornington Peninsula.

But competing in 2025 also holds personal significance for Arnold as it marks 20 years since his longtime mentor, the late Serge Vieira, won the competition in 2005. Arnold worked with Vieira for seven years at his two-Michelin-starred Restaurant Serge Vieira in France, and he was deeply affected by his death in July last year.

“He was like a second father to me,” Arnold says. “And not just from a cooking point of view. We were in each other’s lives for seven years, side by side. His second child and my first child were born one month apart.

“He was the one who pushed me forward to go into the Bocuse the first time. [Without] the time I spent with him, I wouldn’t be where I am today, professionally or personally. This year’s going to be a lot about honouring his memory.”

“[2005 winner] Serge Vieira was the one who pushed me forward to go into the Bocuse the first time … This year’s going to be a lot about honouring his memory.”

Dan Arnold

In the Asia Pacific round, Arnold will have 5½ hours to create two dishes that include mandatory ingredients. The first is presented on a plate, while the second is showcased on a platter before being plated up for the jury.

Since last competing in the Bocuse d’Or, Arnold has become a co-owner in three restaurants – Restaurant Dan Arnold, La Cache a Vin and Pneuma – and says he’s evolved as a chef.

“In 2017, I was just like a machine running the kitchen non-stop,” he says. “I didn’t have the maturity I have now. I have my own idea of how I want to do this. I’ll take on more ideas from other people around me, but I won’t let them make my decisions. That’s probably the biggest difference.

If Arnold makes it to the finals in January, he would be the second Brisbane chef to do so twice after Shannon Kellam, co-owner of Montrachet, who competed in the 2013 and 2015 finals.

The first Bocuse d’Or fundraising dinner will be held at Restaurant Dan Arnold in Fortitude Valley on July 2.