You might have noticed that other pop-up – you know, the one with “celebrity” home cooks showing off their skills acquired after a few months mugging for the TV camera. Well, we’ve got a better one for you. How about a night with the rising stars who’ve actually worked their asparaguses off at cooking school, and survived the sweat and bustle under the watch of Australia’s best chefs?

Welcome to Whet Your Appetite, a one-off dinner next Monday that’s the only chance you’ll have at getting a taste of Appetite For Excellence, the national hospitality competition that chooses our best young chefs, waiters and restaurateurs. And while in previous years it’s been an industry-only activity, they’ve thankfully decided to create a pop-up so the rest of us can enjoy a taste of these culinary bright young things.

Get yourself down to the Electrolux Showcase in Mascot and enter an inspired space showing off plenty of kitchen p*rn, from those induction cooktops that Tetusya Wakuda covets so much to that latest must-brag for food wonks: a steamer oven. There you’ll be treated to a three-course meal with grog, cooked by an all-star team of Sydney’s national finalists from the past three years, including Danika Heslop from Quay,  Jay Lee from Mosaic Restaurant, Victor Liong from Marque, Matthew Bugeja from the already-missed Becasse, and Sarah Knights from Uccello. Serving it all up in style will be last year’s young waiter winner, James Sexton from Oscillate Wildy, who’ll be joined by James Audas from Black by Ezard, Anthony Moore from Bentley Restaurant & Bar, Alexander Tuckett from Pilu, and Christopher Rose from glass brasserie.

To say that such hunger to achieve will be dedicated to your plates, wine glasses and oh-so-precisely folded napkins is an understatement. Even as their bosses are enjoying national and global accolades, these guys are keen to show that they are the next three-hat contender. Alas, they don’t get $100,000, a TV show and a cookbook deal, but the winners do get a little bit of travelling cash to go overseas and work as some of the globe’s best eateries.

For a night, you get to taste Australia’s future. You  can then say you saw their humble beginnings before they hit the big time.

Where: Electrolux Showcase, cnr O’Riordan & Coward sts, Mascot
When: Mon 6 August | 7-10pm
Price: $90 (+$6.39 booking fee)
Details: appetiteforexcellence.com/whetyourappetite