UCOL Wairarapa cooks face hot competition

UCOL Wairarapa cooks face hot competition

UCOL Wairarapa Cookery students will head south to test their culinary capabilities next week at the Wellington Culinary Fare.

The group of five Certificate in Professional Cookery students will represent UCOL Wairarapa in Trainee and Open classes, cooking live in the heat of the competition kitchens on Friday.

Devon Wilmshurst and Jamie Rafferty will both compete in the Coq Au Vin Hot Chicken Brunch Trainee class; Nykyta Kuri and Jodi Haustein will prepare Meadow Mushroom Superb Soup (Trainee) for the judges, and Glen Schofer will contest the Open Dilmah Beef and Tea Main Course.

UCOL Cookery lecturer Damian Peeti says he is impressed with the students’ dedication and the extra hours they have put in. “They have been practising the preparation and plating of their respective dishes in addition to their normal course workload, and holding down jobs in the industry.”

Youth Guarantee Students Devon (17) and Nykyta (18) started their study at UCOL under the government funded scheme and are both juggling jobs and study with preparation for the competitions.
Devon is at Bar Salute in Greytown under the watchful eye of South Wairarapa chef, Restaurateur and former UCOL cookery Lecturer, Travis Clive-Griffin.

Nykyta is currently completing work experience at Masterton’s iconic Café Strada. She hopes to join the Navy when she completes her Cookery, and Baking and Pastry programme at the end of this year.

Nineteen year old Jamie Rafferty is employed at Masterton’s Café Iberia owned by Restaurantuers Wayne DellaBarca and Marlon Tortoza.

Jodi (18) is completing his work experience at Apache Jacks in Masterton and adult student Glen is working with a local entrepreneur to establish a catering company.
A team of students from UCOL’s Palmerston North based Professional Cookery and Baking and Pastry programmes will also take part in the annual Culinary Fare that runs in conjunction with the Wellington Food Show.

ENDS

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