Cuvu College tops chef contest
Cuvu College in Nadroga scooped the Culinary School of the Year Trophy during the School Chefs Challenge 2018 at Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort along the Coral Coast in Sigatoka yesterday.
They managed to defeat defending champion, Sigatoka Andhra Sangam College, with three gold, three silver and one bronze after participating in seven categories of the competition. Minister for Health and Medical Services Rosy Akbar, who was the chief guest, thanked the outgoing general manager Peter Hopgood and his staff for organising an event that would allow students to explore their skills in cooking. She commended the organisers for focusing this year’s challenge on promoting healthy dishes at a time when non-communicable diseases in Fiji were on the rise. The two-day competition was judged by Australian Culinary Federation President and multi-award winning chef Neil Abrahams and resort executive chef Sailesh Naidu.
The competition was part of the resort’s food and beverage department community project. School Home Economics Head of Department Radhika Kumar said they sacrificed a lot since the beginning of this year to take back the trophy, which they had won in 2014, 2015 to 2016.
“This will be the fourth time that our school has become the winner of the competition, unfortunately last year it was taken away from us by Sigatoka Andra Sangam College. So we came back this year with the aim to take back the title.
“A total of 12 students participated in this year’s event and each of these students got awards in the categories they took part in,” she added.
Ms Kumar said that they would now focus on retaining the title in next year’s challenge. Sigatoka Andra Sangam College Head of Department for Home Economics Artika Sharma said her students had given their best in this year’s challenge.