A world of food: Tyro’s Taste Fest

It all started with a conversation in the kitchen. A conversation about serious food envy, borne from exposure to cuisine from around the globe. A conversation about how everyone else’s lunch always looked better than ours, smelled better than ours, and let’s face it – tasted better than ours. As our ravenous eyes fixated on the chicken curry rotating within the microwave, we thought: wouldn’t it be awesome if we could somehow convince these master chefs in the making to share their feasts with us?

The vision: a lunchtime competition where Tyros would each bring a home-cooked dish from their country of origin (or a bag of lollies or packaged snack if they were culinarily challenged). The stakes (steaks?) were high! The owner of the tastiest dish stood to take home the illustrious prize of a free meal at ARIA, a Sydney favourite and a Tyro merchant to boot. The scene set, the email sent, we awaited with bated breath…

The responses were tentative to begin with – but as word grew, replies and visitors increased tenfold! Colleagues-turned-competitors, all showed up keen to find out in advance what would give them the edge. Food really does bring people together. On the day, roughly fifty Tyros arrived, clutching their share plates. Who knew so many culinary masters sat among our midst? Dishes were many and varied: meaty Aussie pies, Sri Lankan Stir-fried Chickpeas, tasty Portuguese Tarts and sizzling Zimbabwean burgers. Everyone sampled as many dishes as they could (at least I did), and as the hour waned, the contestants cast their single vote for the tastiest offering (an honourable bunch, we trusted no-one to vote for themselves).

Competition was fierce, but the winner soon emerged: a mouth-watering Dry Lamb Masala curry, courtesy of Nitin – Product Manager and kitchen trailblazer. Runner-up prizes were also given to a creamy Banoffee Pie and some delicious Peruvian Empanadas.

Of course, what Tyro competition would be complete without a prize for Innovation and Creativity? The engineering department once again did not disappoint, as Trent presented his very own Gingerbread Tyro Terminal:

(Unfortunately, the only chip cards accepted were of the chocolate variety.)

We were keen to record the diversity of cultures at Tyro, so we asked everyone to a place a sticker on a world map to show their place of birth or where they grew up. Here’s what it looked like:

Amazingly, there were a flurry of offers to help out with the set-up, and afterwards with the clean-up – people offering to do the washing up! What a bonus! It really gave us a warm and fuzzy feeling to be offered so much help (either that or we were still buzzing from the lamb curry). It really showed how much Tyro is one big, caring, happy family. So thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone that helped out! It couldn’t have been done without you, you were all so lovely. Tyro’s growth has been amazingly fast recently, so this was a great way to meet and mingle with colleagues new and old from other teams in a fun environment – not to mention really showcase Tyro’s caring and balanced work culture. Here’s to Taste Fest 2015!

Bon Appetit!!!

The Taste Fest Team Marianne Peterson, Dilip Thomas, Michelle Moffatt,