Hot, hot lunches for UCOL staff

Hot, hot lunches for UCOL staff

No peanut butter sandwiches for UCOL staff today – for lunch they had a choice of five delicious curries created by specialist chef and lecturer Nigel Sadler.

The yummy perk for UCOL staff – the curries sold for only $5 each, with plenty of extras – was part of a fund raising effort by lecturers from the School of Tourism and Hospitality who pitched in to help get a team of students to the National Fare competitions in Auckland at the end of August.

UCOL students from Palmerston North and the Whanganui campus have a great track record in the Nestlé Toque d’Or competition, New Zealand’s premier student cookery and food service contest, held as part of the National Fare event.

Nigel says a team of students will travel to Auckland with their coaches for the kitchen and restaurant sections of the competition.

He says it’s quite an expensive exercise but entering the competition is an important part of their training towards becoming top chefs. “Part of the cost is providing the food for the students to practice their specialist dishes on. Each dish takes seven or eight practices. They have to practice over and over again – that’s a lot of cooking and a lot of dedication. They do it all outside normal class hours too, so they can do their best in the Toque D’Or.”

Nigel created the curries for today’s fund-raiser: He learned the art as a chef at the five star Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland and as a chef in Fiji. Other UCOL lecturers helped with the cooking and serving. The menu included Chicken Curry (peanut and lime based), Vegetarian Curry (tomato based with lentils and fresh vegetables), Lamb (tomato based), Fish (coconut cream based) and “very hot” Pork Vindaloo. The extras were rice, roti bread, bananas in toasted coconut, and fruity chutney.

The lamb and chicken were the best sellers and the team raised more than $800 dollars.

Tomorrow (Friday) is bakery day when UCOL staff can get in a supply of bread, cakes, croissants and other goodies for the weekend, all baked by UCOL students.

ENDS

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