Last night, Hilton Sydney celebrated their most extraordinary hospitality talent, crowning three winners to represent the hotel at the Asia Pacific Finals of the F&B Masters at Hilton Brisbane in January 2017.

Hilton Sydney, proving to be strong competitors in the Masters, received over 26 entrants across all categories, with Mark Tomczyk, Hitomi Honda and Tua Fatongiatau selected by a panel of industry judges to progress to the regional finals.

An annual initiative launched by Hilton Worldwide, The Food & Beverage Masters is designed to discover great talent, develop their skill and careers and celebrate exceptional culinary experiences within the Hilton family.

Representing Hilton Sydney at The Food and Beverage Masters Regional Finals in January:

Tua Fatongiatau – The Bar Cup, sponsored by Pernod Ricard

Runner Up - Konstantinos Koromilis

Hitomi Honda –The Barista Cup, sponsored by Vittoria

Runner Up – Sarah Trinh

Mark Tomczyk – The Wine Cup, sponsored by Negociants, Samuel Smith & Son

Runner Up – Mark Tomczyk

Joining last night's winners of The Bar Cup, The Barista Cup and The Wine Cup will be the champion of The Culinary Cup, set to be announced on 30 November 2016 following the qualifying round at Ultimo TAFE.

In the spirit of cultivating culinary talent, Ronald van Weezel, General Manager of Hilton Sydney comments,

“The Food and Beverage Masters is a way for us to identify talent and encourage our teams to do just that. Our commitment to career development does not end after the competition. It is an ongoing focus – and will remain an ongoing focus across Hilton Worldwide.”

The program is strongly supported by managers who are dedicated to giving their time and skills to assist participants in their preparation. This enables managers to benefit from further developing their own leadership skills through applying a range of coaching techniques that will in turn ignite their own passion for developing others and seeing their team members succeed.

- ENDS -

For all media enquires, please contact:

Julian Rosenberg at Klick Communications

julian@klick.com.au // (02) 8353 7110

About Hilton Sydney

Centrally located in Sydney CBD close to shopping and entertainment, Hilton Sydney offers 579 luxury accommodation rooms and suites plus four dedicated levels of conference and events space catering up to 3,000 delegates. The hotel also features Luke Mangan's renowned restaurant glass brasserie, the stylish and award winning Zeta Bar, iconic Marble Bar and LivingWell Premier Health Club and Day Spa.

About Hilton Worldwide's Food and Beverage Masters

The Hilton Culinary Cup, as the competition was formerly known, was first held in Europe before expanding to include four disciplines. Having been renamed Hilton F&B Masters in 2011, the competition has since been held in the Middle East/Africa and more recently in South East Asia.

Hilton Worldwide has long fostered a tradition of creating unique food and beverage experiences including barman Ramon "Monchito" Marrero of Caribe Hilton in Puerto Rico creating the Pina Colada in 1954 and the Waldorf salad named after New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Hilton Worldwide remains committed to providing quality food and dining experiences serving approximately 22 million people per year across its network of over 4000 properties in over 91 countries.