Santiago Sansone is one of 10 talented young chefs who have been selected for the 2024 Pacific Region S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition. Santiago works as Chef de Partie at the Four Seasons in Sydney, and he was put forward for the competition by the Executive chef. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Santiago grew up watching his grandparents cooking every day, preparing dishes for celebrations and holidays, and making pasta every Sunday. Santiago spent four years doing a law degree but realised that he enjoyed the joy and creativity he got when he cooked for his friends and in a part time job he had and so he changed direction and signed up for culinary school. He did various internships in Buenos Aires and then Santiago went on to work for a catering company specialising in Italian cuisine. Here, he became passionate about working with flour, pasta, bread and Italian sweets. Following this, Santiago started working in his first leadership role, as Chef de Partie, at Negroni in Buenos Aires before heading to the States to work at The-Ritz Carlton in Santa Barbara and working across four outlets including fine-dining restaurants, sushi restaurants and more. Santiago came to Sydney, in 2023 and started work as the Chef de Partie at the Four Seasons. It was such a pleasure talking to Santiago and hearing about the inspiration behind his dish, Sweet Memories, which features sweetbreads, or as Argentinians call them, molleja. Through childhood flavours, Santiago aims to encourage people to experience something different by creating a beautiful and colourful dish and he hopes he can change people’s minds and perceptions with this dish and in so doing, help utilise all parts of the cow, so that there is less waste.