The 2026 Australian Baking Scholarships winners have been announced.

Kerry Yacoumis from Tasty Bakehouse in South Australia was named as the Arthur E Denison OAM winner, while Rebecca Tracey, also from South Australia, was awarded the Sydney J Packham OAM scholarship. Rebecca’s success came after three consecutive years of being named as a Packham regional winner.

The awards were announced as part of the Australian Society of Baking’s Chairman’s Dinner, which was held in mid-October in Melbourne, and followed a multiple day tour of some of Melbourne’s most prestigious bakeries.

ASB committee member Cherrie Wilson hosted the group with an itinerary that included breakfast at Drom; a visit to Lune’s Lonsdale Street store, and an EOI tour that highlighted puff pastry and croissant production. The group also visited Tip Top’s Dandenong plant to see large-scale production of tin loaves, crumpets, pancakes and English muffins; sampled the famous doughnuts at Queen Victoria Market; dined at Brunetti Oro; and toured Ferguson Plarre’s major production facility, which produces pastries, cakes, muffins, custom cakes and approximately 14,000 pies a day for a network of more than 80 stores.

As part of their prize Kerry and Rebecca will receive a five-day overseas scholarship to the San Francisco Baking Institute.

The Australian Baking Scholarship were established in 1991 by the Australian Society of Baking with the aim of providing a national competition that promotes thought, discussion, debate and action on key issues that will affect the industry.