Josh Kanara-Bailey, chef and Wintec senior academic staff member for Hospitality. Photo / Supplied
Josh Kanara-Bailey, chef and Wintec senior academic staff member for Hospitality. Photo / Supplied
Almost 300 intermediate, secondary and tertiary wannabe chefs showcased their skill(et)s at the Waikato Culinary Fare last week.
The annual event, now in its 17th year, is organised by Wintec and allows students to take part in live food challenges to compete for gold, silver or bronze awards.
While the Culinary Fare, held at Wintec's Rotokauri campus, is predominantly a high school event, there are also categories for tertiary students.
Chef and Wintec senior academic staff member for hospitality Josh Kanara-Bailey says he always encourages Year 1 Certificate of Culinary Arts students to compete.
"A lot of them are already out in the workforce, in places like Gothenburg [and] Mr Pickles, ... so for them, it's a chance to showcase the skills they have gained from Wintec and their industry experience, as well as to test themselves," Kanara-Bailey says.
The event also gives secondary students a chance to get a taste of Wintec and what it is like to study there.
"[It] is a great place for high school students to get a taste of the industry. It's a tough industry, but the people who get into it are passionate," Kanara-Bailey says.
In the live kitchen challenges, students find out the ingredients an hour before they enter the kitchen and must create something from that.
If they don't want to do that, they can enter the static competitions, which gives them the chance to showcase a dish they've been able to work on and hopefully perfect beforehand.
Teacher in charge of Food Technology at the Waikato Diocesan School for Girls, Michelle Knott, was a judge in the competition this year.
Alex Timmo (right) partnered with Alyssa Holcraft for a live Kitchen event. Photo / Supplied
"There's lots of incredible talent being displayed, lots of skills and techniques. There were a couple of individual chefs today because their partners didn't turn up, so they've really had to step up."
Knott says she was especially excited to be there since a former student of hers, Alex Timmo, was competing in the tertiary category.
For the live event, Alex was partnered with Alyssa Holcraft. The pair is currently completing the Wintec Certificate in Culinary Arts.
Alyssa says: "I think Alex and I work good as a team. We only got the list of ingredients we could use this morning so we had no idea before then and we just kind of sat together and threw ideas out of what we could hero in the dish, what we knew we could do in the timeframe."
They made a chicken roulade with hasselback potato and creamy mushroom and spinach alfredo sauce. For dessert, they made red wine poached pear with a chocolate crumble, red wine jus and a chocolate dome.
The Waikato Culinary Fare, now in its 17th year, saw almost 300 intermediate, secondary and tertiary wannabe chefs competing for top awards. Photo / Supplied
In their category, Magic Box Team Event Junior – Year 1, Alyssa and Alex won Gold.
The young women both want to stay in the culinary industry after completing their studies.
While Alex will be off to Italy next year to scoop out possibilities overseas, Alyssa aims to be a pastry chef starting off in Auckland or Melbourne.
Alex says: "I want to find an authentic Italian restaurant where I can work and learn the local cuisine. One of the judges here today, Michelle Knott, was my cooking teacher at school last year and she really pushed me and made me realise this is what I want to do."
Alyssa says: "We've learned so much this year and the tutors are so supportive and even just having like-minded people in our class has been so cool, it's been great to be able to figure out things together."
There were numerous award categories, including one for cupcakes, cold desserts, savoury pies, creative savoury pizza and healthy lunch.
Participating students came from schools all over the North Island, including Rotorua Boys' High, Taupo College, Massey High School (Auckland) and Otumoetai College (Tauranga).
The overall winner who took home the Waikato Top School Award was Waikato Diocesan School for Girls.
