UCSI students reap awards from Culinaire Malaysia competition
KUCHING: Nineteen UCSI students studying Hospitality and Culinary Arts participated in the Culinaire Malaysia 2017 competition which took place at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre recently.
During the four-day event, from Sept 26 to 29, the students were kept busy participating in the Hot Cooking, Barista and Mocktail Championship.
The Hot Cooking Category consisted of four different specialisations, specifically; Fish/Seafood Main Course, Meat/ Poultry Main Course, Apprentice Salmon Main Course and Ethnic Malay Cuisine.
After many gruelling hours of preparation and presentation of their dishes and drinks, the UCSI Sarawak Team came out triumphant, winning three silver medals, six bronze medals and 9 diploma awards.
Competitions like this provide a great platform to display knowledge and skills which the students have amassed over the years studying at UCSI. The experienced panel of judges provided critical analysis and feedback of the students’ performances at the end of each category that they participated in.
In this way, the competitions can prove to be a useful source of self- evaluation for students which will inevitably help nurture their experience and skills further.
One of the silver medallists Kingsley Chuo, who is a second year Diploma in Culinary Arts student, expressed his sincere thanks for being given the opportunity to participate in such a prestigious event.
He said: “I learned a lot through this competition as it gave me lots of exposure and enabled me to gain experience. Because of this opportunity and the constant guidance I received from my lecturers, I was able to bring a medal back and make my university proud.”
Head of Department for the Hospitality and Culinary Arts William Anthony, said: “Indeed, UCSI Sarawak takes pride in the outstanding results of our student participants. It certainly requires an immense amount of hard work from the students but the results are worth cherishing.
“In my view, the most important thing to note is that the competition journey is a process, not an endpoint. Any one success or apparent failure is just another stepping stone to the next point along the way.
“So my advice to anyone who is trying to develop excellent skills, whether they be in culinary arts or other courses, is not to focus on the present outcomes, instead focus on what you’ve gained and how you can keep on developing.”
Both UCSI staff and students felt it was definitely worth the effort and they look forward to taking part in more culinary competitions in the future.
For more information on the event or course enquiries, call UCSI University Sarawak Campus at 082596 965 or logon to the UCSI Sarawak Campus Facebook page, www. facebook.com/ucsisarawak.