A lot of heat was on Jemaine W and Luke M as they represented the College for the first time at the student chef nationals (NSSCC) this month.
With only 100 minutes to do it in, the year 13 pair had to prepare 4 servings of both an entree and dessert while being judged by a team of professional judges. Coming away with a bronze medal which is an admirable achievement, and breaks new ground for future college chefs.
This achievement represents nearly two terms work practicing for around 8 hours a week. They represented Otago/Southland in competing against 7 other regional pairs. Each team starts with 100 marks and a crew of 8 chef judges (4 in the kitchen and 4 in the tasting room) look to take marks off for everything from mis-en-place to not making the sponsors product the hero of their dish. Silver Fern Farms Lamb loin was star of the entree while Fonterra dairy products and kiwifruit were the main features of the dessert.
Not many student competitions have a prize giving dinner, let alone one at which Miss New Zealand is the guest speaker. An overarching theme of the event is that cheffing is a rewarding, essential and creative career path.
On the day after the competition all of the competitors head on a culinary tour of Auckland. Among the highlights here was a visit to Fonterra's global head quarters in the CBD where careers, product development and a chef masterclass from the Australian chef-of-the-year was on the menu. We also visited Bidfood subsidiary Aspire Foods where, among other products, they sous vide many tonnes of restaurant ready meat products a week; with the aid of a gantry crane!
Jemaine and Luke also did exceptionally well in the regionally qualifying round as they gained a 97/100 to win Otago/Southland honours.
The National Secondary Schools Culinary Challenge (NSSCC) has exceptional sponsors paying hotel accommodation, ingredients, uniforms, prizes and most of the the travel. There is a lot gear to take to Auckland, about 80kgs in our case, and this was expensive. In a heart warming case of McGlashan brother-ship the balance of the costs to go to nationals this year was covered by fundraising from days past. Past collegians Will Loe and Jed Nevill qualified for an ill fated Covid chef nationals in 2021. They fundraised by raffling firewood but never got to use it as the nationals were cancelled at the 11th hour. They generously decided to hold in trust for the next competitors. A big thanks needs to go to them and their families!
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