Students cook up a bronze at national comp
Two students from Spotswood College have won a bronze medal in the final of the National Secondary Schools Culinary Challenge.
Year 11 students, Catriona Oates and Mikaela PhillipsNassif, went head to head with eight other regional teams in a high pressure live 90-minute kitchen cook off at Manukau Institute of Technology’s Culinary School.
Oates said despite a few hiccups along the way, they had done well and pulled off two great dishes.
‘‘We were so pleased to make it to the final and be up against the best in the country.
‘‘It was a very intense 90 minutes and even though there were a few things that hampered our efforts temporarily, we delivered our entrees and mains on time and to the judges’ high standards.’’
Phillips-Nassif said the whole experience was a huge learning curve.
‘‘From developing the dishes through to the final cook off, we have learnt so much.
‘‘We only missed a silver medal by one point so we can’t wait to enter again next year and go for gold.’’
Hospitality teacher at Spotswood College Simon Houghton said the level of competition was very high but the girls held their own and did themselves proud.
‘‘Catriona and Mikaela worked really well under a lot of pressure and delivered great dishes.
‘‘The whole process of designing and refining their dishes has taught them a lot and next year they will be even better.’’
Both girls are taking hospitality next year at school. Phillips-Nassif is working for a catering company and will continue with that while Oates will seek work experience through Spotswood College’s Gateway scheme.
The team had to produce four portions of entre´e and main meals.
The dishes had to include New Zealand produced vegetables and chicken, with Silverbeet being the hero vegetable.
The entre´e was a silverbeet and yoghurt soup finished with crispy Lamb dumplings and fresh chives.
The main was pan seared Supreme of Chicken, roasted baby vegetables, buttered green beans, Anna potatoes, pumpkin puree.