This year’s Youth Week theme, “Strength in Our Stories”, couldn’t have been brought to life in a more fitting way than through the sizzle of a pan, the warmth of a shared family recipe, and the pride of a young person serving up a dish that means the world to them. At Altone Youth Centre, we celebrated Youth Week with our Young Chefs Big Stories cooking competition, an event that was as much about connection and culture as it was about cuisine.
Cooking straight from the heart, our young people became Master Chefs in the making. Giving their stories a voice through their dishes.
A Recipe for Connection
Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday after school, young people gather at Altone Youth Centre, and over time, cooking has become a cornerstone of that community. “Cooking has always been a huge part of our time at the Youth Centre,” says Brittany, Youth Project Officer at Altone. “It brings everyone together and allows them to really share something of themselves.”
For Youth Week, that spirit was turned into something special. Young people were invited to bring in a dish that told their story: a grandmother’s recipe, a cultural tradition, a flavour that carried them back to where they came from. The result was a vibrant, heartfelt celebration that perfectly embodied the theme: Strength in Our Stories.
Stories Told Through Food
Chef Brianna brought along her grandmother’s stuffed capsicum recipe, layered with beef mince and cheese, a dish she has watched her grandmother make countless times. “This recipe makes me feel connected to home,” she shared. “I feel very warm when I make it because of my grandma.” In that simple dish was an entire lineage of love, passed down through generations and now shared proudly with her peers.
Chef Xavier took a different approach, cooking his mum’s honey cake as a nod to his Russian heritage and a flavour he has always loved. “I just like trying new food and I just got a taste for it,” he said with characteristic candour. And while he admitted he may have added a little too much salt, his pride in what he created was unmistakable: “I am proud of what I did today.”
Choosing the winning dish was no easy feat. Every dish was made with love and intention, so in our eyes they were all winners.
More Than Just Cooking
The event was also a powerful reminder that the kitchen is one of life’s great classrooms. Brittany reflected on the broader lessons of the day: “There are so many life skills that can be learned from cooking: patience, resilience. Not everything went amazingly. There was butter not mixing together, there was chicken burning onto the bottom of the stove. But those are the hurdles we have to overcome, and cooking is a great opportunity to learn those lessons.”
Those lessons, learning to adapt, to persist, to try again, are the very same strengths these young people carry in their own stories. The theme of Youth Week rang true in every moment of the day.
Young People Deserve to Be Heard
State Member for Bassendean Dave Kelly MP attended the event and was clearly moved by what he witnessed. “Young people are important,” he said. “What young people say now really counts. Hearing their stories is important. They have important things to say about what services communities need, the future of the planet, and they deserve that. They don’t deserve to be stuck in a corner and treated as lesser human beings.”
His presence was also an opportunity to acknowledge the new equipment purchased through an election commitment, resources that help create these very experiences for young people at Altone.
From ANZAC biscuits to stuffed capsicums, every dish was a smash hit with our young people, who tried dishes they had never been exposed to before.
The Way to Someone’s Heart
“The way to someone’s heart is through their stomach,” Brittany reflected at the end of the event. “Our young people got to share a little bit of their story through their food today. And I think it showed a lot of strength in their story.”
That is exactly what Youth Week is about: creating space for young people to be seen, to be heard, and to be celebrated. At Altone Youth Centre, the Young Chefs Big Stories event did just that, one dish at a time.
Every step of the way, our Altone Youth Workers walked alongside our young people help to craft their creations and plate up for tasting.
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