Team cook their way to victory
BEING one of the smallest groups in the 11th edition of the Indonesian Salon Culinaire held in Jakarta, did not stop KDU’s School of Hospitality, Tourism, and Culinary Arts (SHTCA) entourage from clinching several prestigious awards in all of the categories which they competed in.
The group comprised two senior chef lecturers and two students. They won a total of four Silver and two Bronze awards.
Senior chef lecturer Hamirudin Nazir was announced as the Most Outstanding Chef in Artistry.
The other members of the team were senior chef lecturer Mohd Noor Izam Said as well as students Nurul Najwa Hakim and Chen Poh Chu.
The Indonesian Salon Culinaire, which took place at the Jakarta International Expo Kemayoran, was held in conjunction with the Food and Hotel Indonesia 2017, the 14th Inter national Hotel, Catering Equipment, Fo ood and Drink Exhibition earlier this ye ar.
Driven by passionp and love for c ulinary artistry, the KDU entourage travelled from Malaysia to test their mettle against some of the world’s finest chefs from around thet globe.
The Indones sian Salon Culinair re was a competi ing ground for ov ver 700 contestants co oming from various c countries and backgrou nds.
The compet tition itself was hosted by the Associatio n of Culinary Professionals, which saw a judging panel of 40 pr rofessional culinary experts from Switzerland,S Singapore, Taiwan, India , China, Malaysia and more, to evaluate the quality and presentation of the contestants.
Chef lecturer Mohd Noor Izam said that he included a dash of local flavour to his winning dish.
“I had specifically prepared my dish to suit the local taste buds of the judges, as I believed this could give me the upper hand for them to like my cooking, and hence obtain better scores,” he said.
Participating in competitions are second nature to chef lecturer Hamirudin, who has won numerous awards and accolades throughout the years.
He believes that one should continuously train and prepare, no matter how experienced one might be to hone his or her sskills.s. “The vigorous trainiing is part of our culture here att KDU as we train our students for major competitions. “It’s a norm for our culinary studennts to be seen aroundd in the kitchen after class hours, perfectinng their cooking techniques while being superviised by the chef lecturers,” hee said. Chen who is a Diplloma in Culinary Arts student, said she wanted to thank chef lecturer MuhammadM Edwan Shaharir as the teamm coach for coaching and guiding her ono the cooking methods needed.
“This was made possiblee because we are equipped with state-of-othe-art facilities here at KDU,” shhe said.