Chefs buzzing for Salon Culinaire
Southern chefs, trainees and home cooks will be tantalising tastebuds and cooking up a storm when the Southern Light Salon Culinaire and Southland Secondary Schools Culinary Challenge are held tomorrow.
The competitions will be held at the Southern Institute of Technology Bungalow training restaurant.
Salon director and SIT chef tutor Tony Goodall said the competitions had attracted more than 70 competitors from all over the southern region.
Trainees from SIT, Aoraki Polytechnic in Timaru, and Otago Polytechnic in Cromwell would take part in the Salon Culinaire, as would industry chefs and home cooks from the greater Southland region, Queenstown, and Dunedin, he said. Students from various schools would take part in the Southland Secondary Schools Culinary Challenge, which would run alongside the Salon Culinaire competition.
The competitions gave entrants an opportunity to show their skills to prospective employers and other chefs.
Hours of work went into preparing for the competitions, Goodall said.
The Salon Culinaire competition would be divided into different classes and categories, including a live component where entrants prepared and presented a dish, and a static component, which included the likes of cold desserts, breads, gateau, and fruit flans which were prepared before the competition and presented on the day.
Judges were a mixture of industry managers and chefs. Winners of both competitions would be eligible to compete in the national finals in Auckland later this year. With so many entrants, the SIT kitchens would be buzzing with activity and the public was welcome to watch, Goodall said.
The competitions will run from 8am until 4pm.